Celtic swept the highland side away with four headed goals, two from the reborn Joe Ledley, and two from Virgil van Dijk.<\/p>\n
Ledley was given a more advanced role than usual which allowed him to spend more time in the opposition box, which duly brought its reward, and van Dijk finally headed a couple toward the goal and got a deserved brace.<\/p>\n
” Its about time ” said the big Dutchman, almost smiling.<\/p>\n
There was no Samaras, no Commons, no Kayal no Lustig and no Anthony Stokes at the start, but there were \u00a0places for Darnell Fisher, Joe Ledley, Nir Bitton, Scott Brown and Teemu Pukki.<\/p>\n
Perhaps they were suffering from fresh injuries, or more likely, perhaps they weren’t fit in midweek either.<\/p>\n
But, this was a different game..<\/p>\n
Celtic took the lead through van Dijk on 42 minutes after a great cross from Emilio Izzaguerre, and that seemed to ease the nerves going into the break.<\/p>\n
Eight minutes into the second half, and van Dijk added a second, from a corner, which immediately had the club historians reaching for their notebooks, trying to find out when the last time such an event occured. They’re still looking, and when they find it, they’ll be able to publish either a sketch or a photo of that goal, depending on when it took place.<\/p>\n
With Celts now comfortably ahead, Fraser Forster decided to chuck a shot from Rocco Quinn back to Ivan Sproule, who duly pulled Ross County back into it, but the two goal cushion was re-instated when Joe Ledley headed home in the seventieth minute-just ninety seconds after County had tried to make a game of it.<\/p>\n
Three minutes after that, Ledley confirmed he was back on his way to full fitness, and clearly relishing a more forward role, by adding his second on 73, and just a minute or so after he nearly added a third, manager Neil Lennon decided it was time to pull him off.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Makes you wonder what he’d have done had he got his hat trick.<\/p>\n
All in all, a good way to answer the critics after an insipid midweek performance against Ajax.<\/p>\n
Lennon changed things around a bit, but the inclusion of Nir Bitton was the most significant, because it allowed Ledley a chance to impose himself on the game.<\/p>\n
Virgil van Dijk could also have had more than the two he got, and perhaps the best news is that \u00a0Celtic had over twenty goal attempts in the game, but this time four of them went in. A huge improvement. None by the forwards, granted, but the movement of Pukki and latterly Stokes allowed a wee bit more room for the others.<\/p>\n
A good result at what has been a bit of a nightmare place to visit recently, and it puts Celtic seven points clear at the top.<\/p>\n
Maybe they should all form a big circle and pat each other on the back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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