Celtic have overcome a bit of adversity to beat Livingston 3-0 and earn another three points in the Premiership.
A penalty from Reo Hatate, a Matt O’Riley finish and a late Daizen Maeda screamer did the damage at the Tony Macaroni Arena.
The victory was earned by ten men after goalkeeper Joe Hart was sent off for scything down Mohammed Sangare at the edge of the box.
The Celtic defence he left behind looked a little exposed at times. However, the team were comfortable winners in the end as we extended our lead at the top of the table to five points ahead of the Saturday 3pm kick-offs. Here’s what we learned from the game.
Rejuvenated Taylor
Greg Taylor was one of our finest performers on the afternoon. At the very least, it was by far his best showing so far under Brendan Rodgers.
The Scotland international has had a slow start to the campaign but he was back to his industrious best in West Lothian, especially in the first half.
Livingston could barely deal with his movement and passing as he dictated the play. The highlight of his game was the pass he played for Hatate which led to the early penalty award. Hopefully, we’ll see more of this from the 25-year-old.
A big shoutout should also be given to O’Riley who was excellent throughout and cooly netted our second goal.
Discipline issues
Hart’s dismissal was our third red card in the last few days. Like Gustaf Lagerbielke and Odin Thiago Holm before him, it was all very avoidable.
At the stage of the Englishman’s departure, Celtic had received three red cards in 55 minutes of football. We only had three reds in our 79 matches prior to Tuesday night. That tells a fair old story.
We’re not quite sure what’s going on at present. It could just be a coincidence but it does seem like we are guilty of some reckless moments right now. It proved costly in midweek, and could have again today.
Thankfully the team battled through with ten. However, we will be without Hart for the visit to in-form Motherwell next weekend. That could be a worry.
Hoodoo firmly busted
The victory was our third in a row at the Tony Macaroni Arena. Prior to that breakthrough win in March 2022, we had gone five without success in West Lothian.
The ground used to give every fan a fair few nerves but we can calmly say now that we’re over the worst of it. That’s not to say that we may not drop points there in future. But for now we can relax.
There are still things to work on. But that was a pretty good afternoon, all things considered.
In other news, Chris Sutton explains where the Celtic hierarchy went wrong this summer
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