Hibs 0:2 Celtic

It was a lovely day in sunny Leith as Brendan’s team arrived for their 2nd League encounter of the 2024-25 season.

A few folk had mentioned how difficult a trip to Salt-n-Sauce land can be for The Hoops but any worries lasted approximately 3 minutes when Kyogo hit a shot low towards the corner, the keeper spilled the ball to the side where ever-young James Forrest was quick enough of foot and mind,  to square the ball across the 6 yard line to a welcome and waiting Nicholas Kuhn to slot home the opener.

With all initial, albeit minor, concerns abated, the yellow jerseyed Celts then went into full free-flowing fitbaw mode. Some of the play was exquisite with quick interlinking, one touch passing, constant movement and importantly, a regular change of tactics with Scales and Alastair Johnston looking for either a short pass to the midfield or a ball over the top to the ever eager Kyogo.

It was a joy to watch and Hibs were being run ragged and they had no escape from the constant Celtic pressure. At one point the Hibs defence were so bewildered, one of them actually passed the ball straight to Kyogo who sadly fluffed a great chance to score when 1 on 1 with the keeper.

The Celtic 2nd goal would eventually come from the ex-Scotland midfielder and stalwart Celtic captain, Callum McGregor who scored with a stunning 25 yard strike that the old hacks would have deemed a “howitzer!”. It really was a cracker, with Calmac taking the ball in his stride,  stepping into space, looking up and drilling a thunderous shot right into the keepers right top corner.

The Sky Sports camera pinged to current Scotland manager Steve Clarke in the stands, who probably watched on fuming wondering why anyone would actually crazily try a long-shot on goal, let alone move into the opponents half of the pitch.

With the 2nd goal, the game was almost in the bag before the 1st half was over. Celtic pushed for a 3rd but it didn’t come and while there would be no real problems, the remains of the game did raise a few small areas of concern.

First of all was the risk factor with such a threadbare strike-force.

Kyogo took quite a few hits, one a sore fall on his shoulder which saw him go down for a few minutes while fans held their breath. Our striker also suffered a couple of heavy stamps on his feet as well as the usual rough-n-tumble of the Scottish game. He would eventually go off to be replaced by Mikey Johnstone up front ( yes I know!) but then sadly Unlucky Mikey would also have to go off due to being clattered, albeit fairly, in a challenge with the Hibs keeper following a save from a Matt O’Riley header.

The fact that we have 1 dedicated striker is a disgrace. If it is to be Adam Idah, then the Negotiators get it sorted. We are running risks that no club with such a healthy balance needs to run, its negligent in truth. Its true we had plenty of chances at Easter Road, which mainly involved a dribbling Kuhn taking 3 too many touches rather than shooting but we really need to do more to make sure we have a constant viable threat through the middle without running star players into the ground.

The drop-off was also a bit perplexing. We came out second half and never really got going. It was fine and we did create some chances but  it had a  little “Its fine” feel about it rather than a clinical “Kill them!” execution. Were we just doing enough or were we struggling fitness wise? (it was very sunny – Excuses CSC). The drop off then allowed Hibs to at least try and make a fist of it and they ventured up the park and made CCV and Scales turn a few times and in truth, we looked a little clumsy and lacked composure when needed but no real danger for our new Danish keeper.

Maybe just cobwebs etc but again, the need for a class act at the back became clear. Liam Scales did have good moments in the game but also some wobbles and he struggles to maintain a high level of performance across the whole 90 minutes. It isn’t his fault, Scales does all he can but is limited. There is so much emphasis on him to be Franz Beckenbauer that it really is up to Brendan and the players to ensure they help him out as much as possible by always giving him options on the park.

It wasnt a great day for Carter Vickers either but he concentrates on negating attacks rather than both defending and starting attacks so has less pressure over the whole 90 minutes, so he gets a little more leeway from fans IMHO.

Behind these two, Kasper Schmeichel continued to impress with his diagonal passing out to wing backs but there’s clearly work needing done all round to help us get to a level where we can play the ball out from the back with consistent composure.

In the middle of the park, most eyes were on Matt O’Riley and how worried Peter Lawwell would be at every tackle. MOR did okay as did Calmac but the game just seemed to pass by Reo Hatate. This seems to happen every now and again with Reo, he cant seem to get a hold of the ball or make a sustained contribution over the whole match. No harm done and hopefully he is fine for the Cup game facing same opponent coming up.

We had a few squad players getting some game time, Maeda came on and will hopefully kick on and ramp up his fitness over next few weeks. Ralston got his “Tony..10 minutes!” for the returning after a long summers fitbaw, Alastair Johnston. Bernardo made his “Im back for good” re-emergence and will be looking forward to the Huns game in a few weeks no doubt. Forrest again showed the experience of on old head with his cut across for Kuhn when a Yang may have tried a narrow angled shot. Yang did come on and again, hopefully can get some more time moving forward to find form. Holm made a rare “6th” concussion substitution after Mikey Rocky Johnstone had to go off with a head know and black eye after clash with the Hibs keeper.

Interestingly, Palma wasn’t on the bench and seemingly no talk of injury. There have been talk of us bringing in another winger so could he be away this window or hopefully its just a lack of information? The guy might be inconsistent but there’s a player in there, just needs the application.

All in all 3 points won and job done in 30 minutes.

MOTM : It was good to see opening scorer Kuhn getting his goal but also so much involvement overall. If he learns to just fire the trigger rather than take the extra touches then he really could have quite the season.