BBC pundits say fans ‘weren’t happy’ with Celtic star minutes after coming on v Dundee United

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Celtic have reacted well to the Ibrox horror show from last week.

That’s back-to-back home wins, including Celtic seeing past Dundee United 2-0 on Wednesday evening to move 16 points clear at the top of the table.

Jim Goodwin’s side have been outstanding this season and they have a strong chance of securing a third-place finish following promotion.

Added to that, during the reverse fixture at Tannadice, they were the first team to stop Celtic from scoring in the Premiership, so it was never going to be a straightforward game and so it proved to be.

Even though Daizen Maeda opened the scoring after 23 minutes, it wasn’t until Reo Hatate was brought onto the field that the champions could breathe easy when he sealed the points seven minutes from time.

During the final 15-20 minutes, the Celtic fans were getting frustrated and one man didn’t help himself, despite only being on the field of play for a small period of time.

Celtic fans ‘weren’t happy’ with Luis Palma against Dundee United

Luis Palma is a back-up option for Celtic and he isn’t showing any signs that he will break into the XI or show that he is worthy of being a long-term fixture under Brendan Rodgers.

Pat Bonner and Allan Preston noted how he wasn’t winning his challenges when he came on against Dundee United and he was also being one-dimensional on the ball, as they told BBC Radio Scotland.

All of that resulted in moans and groans from the crowd towards the player.

“Palma, looking to get there, but Stephenson got there first,” explained the BBC commentator. “Just an edgy feel about the Celtic supporters.”

Bonner responded: “Yeah, they weren’t happy there with Palma. Just on the pitch, he didn’t compete a wee bit harder for that ball.”

BBC commentator then added minutes later: “Palma, coming in off the left side, off the bench for Celtic, heading towards the byline, well, an inauspicious start to his little cameo as a Celtic sub here. The Celtic fans weren’t happy with his challenge for the ball earlier. Then he has overrun it for a goal kick.”

Bonner stated: “He is all right-footed. He runs at the Dundee United player. He does so well the defender. He stays on his right foot and knows that Palma can’t go down the outside of him and he gets his block in. Drop the shoulder. Do something. He can go to the byline. I have seen him do it. I have seen him get crosses into that position. I don’t know whether it’s confidence.”

Allan Preston then suggested: “It has to be a lack of confidence. At the moment, Brendan’s preferred two are Maeda and Kuhn. He’s probably not getting enough game time to get a bit of rhythm going. There is no doubt he has got ability. They paid a lot of money for him. He just maybe short of confidence just now.”

Palma’s stats for Celtic this season

Palma joined Celtic last summer and he was hoping his first 12 months would act as a development phase before he would explode.

Nicolas Kuhn has gone to the next level, but the Honduras star just can’t start his engine and you wonder if Rodgers will be happy to see him go this month.

Palma’s stats for the campaign don’t make for good reading, but he will argue that he has no flow to his game because he has hardly played.