Talking points from the Premiership

Celtic turn on the style when it matters
Oh, it all started so promisingly.  Aberdeen were impressive in the first half - they played at a high tempo, pressing Celtic when they were in possession, while looking comfortable on the ball themselves.  Niall McGinn forced Craig Gordon to palm his shot off the crossbar, while Adam Rooney, Ryan Jack and Kenny McLean all forced further saves from the keeper... yet for all the Dons' dominance, it was the Celts that capitalised on virtually their only chance of the opening 45 minutes. Scott Brown's (the Aberdeen one) botched clearance led to a corner, and Stuart Armstrong's inswinger was headed home by Jason Denayer from three yards out.  There might have been a foul on the Dons keeper, but in truth it was yet another example of Aberdeen's frailties in defending set-pieces being exposed; that was the third goal they've conceded to Celtic from corner kicks this season, all three within the six yard box.

Still the visitors pressed in the second half.  Don Daniels flicked a McGinn cross wide, while Andrew Considine headed over.  Yet the attacks were became less precise, and they began living dangerously - Leigh Griffiths got in behind and scored, only to be correctly called back for offside.  Having been second best for 60 minutes, the game decisively turned Celtic's way following the outcome of successive penalty claims - an optimistic shout for handball against Nir Biton was turned away at one end, then a Celtic claim was upheld after Stefan Johansen tumbled under a Mark Reynolds trip at the other end. Griffiths dispatched the resulting spot kick, and things got rapidly out of hand after that.

Celtic were now in complete control and they proceeded to put Aberdeen to the sword.  Set free from his defensive duties, Adam Matthews first teed up Gary Mackay-Steven to strike a 25-yard left pegger, then cut back for Stefan Johansen to finish for their fourth.  It was cruel on the Dons, who were efficiently punished for their earlier profligacy, but all credit to the Celts for their clinical finishing, and for performing like champions.  After 60 minutes, 2-0 seemed a harsh scoreline, but by the end this could have been even worse than 4-0.

Realistically, the title race is over - and while the games between the two sides have been closer than results suggest, the facts remain that Celtic have still won all three, and I think even diehard Dons fans would admit they don't deserve the title over the team they haven't been able to earn a single league point against. MI

Motherwell and Inverness both benefit from reinforcements

"Second ball!"  It’s one of the most clichéd shouts you’ll likely hear in any game of amateur football but one that Caley Thistle fans are screaming a lot these days. An impressive undefeated run came to an end when a spirited Motherwell side emerged from a drenched Fir Park with a vital three points, busting coupons all over the UK in the process.  For the fourth game in a row Inverness conceded a goal from a corner, or soon after.  It's a recurrent theme: opposition corner only partly cleared, with the ball quickly heading back past Ryan Esson and into the Inverness net.

There are plenty of factors that have led to this weakness.  Firstly, whilst Esson is a competent keeper, he doesn’t command his penalty area as well as Dean Brill does and relies on his defenders to clear the danger when perhaps he could claim the high ball. Another issue is that when ICT defend corners they leave two or three men very high up the pitch.  Sure, this offers the possibility of a counter attack and forces teams to keep extra players back to guard against the threat.  But it doesn’t appear to be working in their favour.  More often than not, whenever a cross is cleared, the ball lands near the edge of the box where it's snapped up by an opposing player.

Caley Thistle are looking a bit leggy; they are fortunate that Dundee United appear to be in the same situation.  Given the size of the squad it is perhaps to be expected; they've used the fewest players of any team in the league this season and it may now be that some of those players are a little drained. The signing of Edward Ofere, who produced a solid goalscoring debut, and potentially Estonian Tarmo Kink, comes at a potentially pivotal time in the season.  Strong and excellent at holding the ball up and with a decent touch, Ofere was a little off the pace and didn’t always run where his team mates were expecting, but there was enough on show on Saturday to suggest he could be a very valuable addition to the side. He could also be useful at clearing corners.

The Highlanders aren't the only ones benefitting from reinforcements.  One of the most impressive Motherwell players on Saturday was the returning Scott McDonald.  Whilst not exactly a veteran at 31, he's certainly been around the block.  The Aussie turned in the kind of performance that made him such a popular figure for Fir Park supporters.  Despite his diminutive stature he ably held up the ball until others joined him in the attack and repeatedly drifted inside defenders as if they weren’t there.  Only a rushed shot at goal under pressure denied him a “re-debut” strike but he looks an astute signing and could be vital for Motherwell’s hopes of avoiding the drop. AS

Dundee choose a bad day to have an off-day

Between 3pm and 3.45pm on Saturday, about 200 of my brain cells died, 4% of a mayfly's lifespan passed, an average glacier will have moved about 3cm - which, ironically, is further than Kevin Thomson managed in this game - and, at the Global Energy Stadium, pretty much nothing happened.

Luckily, a few folk who were wearing Ross County shirts came out for the second half and did relatively passable impersonations of professional footballers.  And so the home side ultimately deserved their win, simply because, either side of Jamie Reckord's winner, they also managed to hit the post and the bar.  In contrast, I left Dingwall trying, unsuccessfully, to recall a single chance created by Dundee.  That was surely their worst performance of the season by some way, which came as a huge surprise to me given that they were unbeaten in their previous eight league games and pushing hard for a top six spot.

Maybe it shouldn't have.  To be fair, the visitors were toothless in attack because they had run out of attackers.  Luka Tankulic, David Clarkson and Paul Heffernan were all injured; so too was in form schemer Paul McGowan.  Gary Harkins was the obvious like-for-like replacement for the latter, but so short were they that he was pressed into service up front.  My mother (who came with me to the match) unkindly suggested that Harkins looked like a guy who went to Football Fans In Training, but in reality he was ineffective because he only ever got the ball with his back to goal, and had virtually no support.  

Just when Paul Hartley thought it couldn't get any worse, he lost Greg Stewart to injury before half-time (and. given I slagged him off in the first paragraph, it must be said that Thomson was ill and was withdrawn shortly after the break).  Celtic aside, every side in this league struggles when more than a handful of players are missing, and Dundee are no exception.  They at least have a few weeks off to get some of their casualties fit, which is just as well; their remaining five games before the split are against the top four plus St. Johnstone.

The home side, meanwhile, were hardly outstanding; their primary, and possibly only, tactic was to punt direct balls at their two strikers and hope that Michael Gardyne and Rafael De Vita might gobble up any scraps.  In this game it was sufficient, but one wonders if any team in this league would have failed to manage a clean sheet against this Dundee side.  In the end it's just as well that County nicked the full three points - results elsewhere mean that they simply keep pace with the teams around them. LS

Accies are so bad, they even lost away to St. Mirren

After hearing this result, I instantly looked up to the sky, expecting to see at least some porcine-shaped objects in the air, if not even the four horsemen of the apocalypse.  But, to my relief, St. Mirren's first home league win of the season was not in fact an omen of impending rapture.

In a different sense of the word, of course, there was plenty of rapture for Buddies fans, for failure to beat a Hamilton side that have badly lost their way under Martin Canning really would have been the end of the world.  In honesty, the home side, whilst hardly repressible, were far more dominant than the score suggested.  There were certainly a few signs that Gary Teale has improved his team; the arrival of James Dayton, who set up the only goal for Steven Thompson, has partly offset the loss of Kenny McLean, and veteran Alan Gow had a tidy debut in the attacking midfield role.  At the back, another debutant, Viktor Genev, looked the part alongside Jim Goodwin (thirteen games without a booking!) until going off injured at half-time; it would be terrible luck for St. Mirren if the Bulgarian central defender was lost for an extended period.

Accies have been so poor under Canning - just two points out of twenty-seven, and just one goal in their last 740 minutes of action - that the folk in charge of the club must be seriously considering the future.  From being a decent bet for a European spot, they now look likely to be overtaken by Dundee and St. Johnstone and miss out on the top six altogether.  Whilst they lost their two best players in January, along with their outstanding player-manager Alex Neil, that is only so much of an excuse.  The fact that goalkeeper Michael McGovern has been their best player in recent weeks is really rather damning.

There were certainly signs on the pitch that all is not well; the remarkable shoving match between Darian McKinnon and Jason Scotland, for example.  McKinnon really should have been sent off in this game; the midfielder's form has dipped drastically since the turn of the year and it really is quite remarkable that he hasn't been dropped - and that he wasn't subbed in this match, given that he seemed to be actively trying to provoke the referee into showing him a red card.  His crude challenge on Jason Naismith (reminiscent of one which Nadir Ciftci was recently cited for) may yet draw the attention of the Compliance Officer.

Those with long enough memories might compare Canning with Franck Sauzee, the Frenchman who was outstanding in his twilight years with Hibs, and who took over in the dugout after Alex McLeish left for Ibrox.  Sauzee lasted only sixty-nine days, in which he won only a single match (a cup replay against Stranraer) and picked up only five points in eleven league games before he was sacked and replaced by Bobby Williamson.  Accies at least have no fears of relegation, which means they can muddle on till May without drastic consequences.  But if they have ambitions of staying up next season, either need Canning to prove he is up to the task, or ditch him sooner rather than later. LS

St. Johnstone and Kilmarnock serve up a treat (not really)
Let’s start with something I bet you never thought you’d see on this blog - a defence of Neil Doncaster.  As you are all well aware, the Scottish Premiership does not currently have a sponsor and there does not appear to be a host of companies fighting each other off for the honour.

In any ordinary organisation the blame for this would ultimately rest with the chief executive.  As Mr Doncaster is still drawing a substantial wage, perhaps there’s another reason...naw, there isn’t.  He is indeed to blame.  This is actually just a facetious argument made in an attempt to write something vaguely interesting about a St. Johnstone-Kilmarnock match that was inherently uninteresting.

Anyone with the job of selling this particular game as a product to which a company might want to put their name in order to add value to their product has my eternal sympathy.  Two teams that aren’t very good, but also not quite bad enough to be amusing, playing on a sodden pitch in a stadium barely a quarter full. It had all the ingredients for your standard late winter slog, and boy did it deliver, aside from a late flurry of chances for Killie which included Nathan Eccleston smacking the ball off Tam Scobbie’s face when it was easier to score.

Surely we can only place so much blame on poor Mr Doncaster when anyone would struggle to sell such a boring product.  But then I remembered the Brit Awards took place last week and that they were dominated by two of the most boring  men this country has to offer - Ed Sheeran and Sam Smith are selling millions of records, so clearly there are talented people out there who can make a fortune selling any old dross. Maybe there’s still hope. IM

Partick put the McMillan saga behind them

I wrote last week about Alan Archibald's side being in a crisis; well, that ended pretty emphatically at Tannadice.  After several weeks of Bad Partick Thistle (and, last week against Ross County, Absolutely F****** Horrendous Partick Thistle), Good Partick Thistle turned up, and took advantage of Dundee United's current malaise with a deserved win, as well as, in Stephen O'Donnell's wonderfully worked and finished opener, the best goal of the weekend.

Alan Archibald was quick to praise his back line after the win, and understandably so; this was the first time in a while that his defence had looked solid and largely mistake-free.  Finding the correct blend has been tough this season, and he'll hope that this combination of Christie Elliot, Conrad Balatoni, Frederic Frans and O'Donnell might be the way forward.

Elliot, normally a forward or winger, is just the latest in an increasingly makeshift set of left-backs this season, following Jordan McMillan, Jake Carroll, Callum Booth, Dale Keenan and Stuart Bannigan.  But he's about the best that Archibald can come up with just now; confirmation came in just before kickoff (an unusual time for such news to break) of the dismissal of ex-Dunfermline and Rangers defender McMillan.  McMillan was a first choice until he was suddenly suspended by the club in early January impending an internal investigation.

Remarkably given the nature of media these days, the reasons behind McMillan's suspension and sacking were kept quiet - until yesterday's Sunday Mail revealed that he had failed a drugs test.  It's a distraction that the Jags will hope to have put behind them, and hopefully this young man's problems are not so big an issue that his football career isn't doomed to end at the age of just 26. LS

Martin Ingram (MI) is our Aberdeen Correspondent.  Legend has it that he is the tallest man in the Red Army.  He writes regularly for Aberdeen fanzine The Red Final..

Iain Meredith (IM) is technically a Rangers fan, but these days he tends to support them ironically.  He only agreed to help with this blog because now he can tell his wife that he's "only watching the game to help a friend out".

Lawrie Spence (LS) has ranted and spouted his ill-informed opinions on Narey's Toepoker since September 2007.  He has a life outside this blog.  Honestly.

Andrew Sutherland (AS) occasionally writes for When Saturday Comes.  He would never miss an ICT match unless he was offered a date with the lead singer of CHVRCHES...who he would then take to said ICT match.