Dundee United could still play better...
...or so claimed Jackie McNamara after a thumping win in the derby. He may be right. With their pace and firepower in attack, United have proven on many occasions over the last year that 1-0 and 2-0 leads can turn into 4-0 and 5-0 wins, when their opponents start chasing the game and leaving space to exploit. And so it proved against Dundee, even in the absence of the suspended Nadir Ciftci and with Stuart Armstrong only making a cameo off the bench. But, had they clicked a little bit better in the final third, the result could have been even more spectacular.
Still, Jackie Mac must be delighted; Gary Mackay-Steven's trajectory is heading back up again after a couple of seasons of flatlining, while Ryan Dow continues to get better and better and Chris Erskine is at last adapting to this level. But most importantly for Arabs, the defence looks as solid as it has done at any point during McNamara's tenure - helped on Sunday by a titanic performance by Paul Paton in front of them.
Eminent journalist and Dundee fan Patrick Barclay has suggested United should aim for the title. I suspect that is well beyond them, but they've got to be the favourites for second place right now.
Double trouble
I wonder if Derek McInnes plans to continue with David Goodwillie and Adam Rooney in partnership, or whether he simply judged that he could get away with playing two strikers against Ross County's woeful backline. The duo grabbed a goal each and could have had more but for some good goalkeeping and Goodwillie's miss of the season. The manager's decision to attack a struggling opponent - he even used Jonny Hayes as left-back in this game - was a good one.
Future opponents may need to be shown more respect though, not least if Niall McGinn's late injury keeps him on the sidelines for a while. But McInnes will have at least learned that the option of playing two up front is perfectly decent.
County became the first top flight team since Ebbe Skovdahl's infamous Dons side of fifteen years ago to lose their first seven league games of the season. It's been fifty-four years since a top flight team lost their first eight league games. They better get a result against Dundee next week, because I'm damned if I'm going to search on Statto.com for another half hour so I can tell you the last time someone lost their first nine...
No cohesion without Commons
The last time Celtic started the league season so poorly was...well, actually it was only two years ago. Nobody particularly cared then, but that was because Neil Lennon's side went on to beat Barcelona and reach the last 16 of the Champions League. Ronny Deila is unlikely to be afforded such patience even if Celtic finish ahead of Dinamo Zagreb and Astra Giurgiu in the group stages of the Europa League.
Deila fielded a stronger team than he did in the loss at Inverness, but he made six changes, mostly in midfield and attack. It's not surprising that there's a lack of coherence when these players have played together so rarely, but Celtic sides of the past have had enough quality to bludgeon opponents at Celtic Park, even when the reserve team is playing. This wasn't the case on Sunday, not until Kris Commons and Scott Brown came on.
To put it bluntly, this is a game they deserved to lose. John Sutton missed a sitter after putting his side in front, while the decision not to award a penalty for a blatant handball ("a great save", Stuart McCall understandably called it afterward) was outrageous, even more so in terms of the spot kick that Brown was awarded for falling over in the box several strides after a foul that occurred about five yards outside the box. That was a decision that would never, ever have been given against the home team at Celtic Park. But it gave Celtic a lift they hadn't earned.
As for Motherwell, it's no surprise to see them back to their old stuffy selves now that their injury list is clearing. They'll be in the top half of the table soon enough.
Concern for St. Johnstone
Brian Graham's record of two goals in three games seems to suggest that St. Johnstone will be all right without long-term absentee Steven Maclean, but the truth is that the Perth Saints were utterly dominated for seventy minutes in Inverness. Graham was so isolated that he could have done with a mobile phone to communicate with his teammates. The big striker thrives on cross balls into the box, but Tommy Wright's side simply aren't designed to provide that sort of service on a frequent basis; neither of his wide players - Lee Croft and David Wotherspoon - got to the by-line once against Caley Thistle.
The midfield and defence were hardly impressive either. In the case of the former, the return to full fitness of Murray Davidson may give them a player who can get up to support Graham rather better than Gary McDonald did on Saturday. Even if that is the case though, Wright will surely use Michael O'Halloran or Adam Morgan from the start in the future to give his centre-forward more help as well. They also have Scott Brown to come back to provide some protection for the defence.
And by god they need it. The backline is dreadfully slow without another casualty, Tam Scobbie, with Frazer Wright's aerial ability of little use against an ICT side who kept it on the deck. This match was the first time that I've thought that Wright, 35 in December, and Dave Mackay, 34, have looked their age. Hopefully, for St. Johnstone's sake, I'm jumping to conclusions.
Would the real Partick Thistle please stand up?
At Firhill this season, the Jags have convincingly beaten Ross County and Inverness...and lost last minute winners to Hamilton and St. Mirren. Friday night's match against the latter was a game they should have had in the bag by half time, but they were left regretting spurning a shedload of chances after Kris Doolan's opener.
Two things stood out from watching Partick in this game. One was that Kallum Higginbotham and Steven Lawless are technically gifted players who caused their opponents nightmares, but whose decision-making in the final third was often terrible and wrecked many promising positions. The other was that, however good their attackers are, Thistle will always be vulnerable with such a poor central defence and a goalkeeper who flaps at everything. Aaron Muirhead wouldn't have played if Danny Seaborne was available; Conrad Balatoni was dreadfully culpable for Calum Ball's equalizer; and whilst Abdul Osman's handball for the decisive penalty was foolish, so too was Scott Fox's failure to turn Kenny McLean's preceding free kick past the post, instead of keeping it in the field of play.
I'd say Partick were shooting themselves in the foot, but going by Friday they'd probably miss if they tried. St. Mirren, meanwhile, were not great by any means; this was a match where they got a few breaks. There's still plenty of cause for concern.
Accies are not going down
Not much to report from New Douglas Park, but Hamilton did pretty well to eke out a point given they were missing both their first-choice central defenders and Mickael Antoine-Curier with injury, while Darian McKinnon was suspended. Accies now have sixteen points on the board. In order to get to forty points - usually more than enough to finish tenth or higher - they need only twenty-four points from their remaining thirty-one games. Not only is that realistic, in fact it would be a shock if they didn't manage it.
So Accies are staying up. So are Dundee, going by their performances up to this weekend. Which means at least one and possibly two established top flight teams are going down this season. That's an interesting thought.
Moron of the week
A shared award this week, for Willo Flood and Ryan Jack; the Aberdeen midfield duo were both booked...for having a row with each other! It's even more ridiculous considering Aberdeen were two up at the time. Derek McInnes said afterwards that they "kissed and made up" at half-time - one imagines that he actually banged their heads together.
And one more thing
I imagine that, hypothetically, had a worker in Celtic's ticket office been accused of racism by a colleague or a customer, they would have been suspended until the accusation had been investigated. Isn't that how these things work in most workplaces? Regardless of whether Alexander Tonev is innocent or not, surely the Bulgarian winger should be taken out of the firing line until this whole saga comes to its conclusion.
L.
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