Kris Commons’ view on Celtic’s performance at Hamilton yesterday was over-the-top and unfair.
The former Scotland international and former Celt let rip at Neil Lennon’s team yesterday. Commons didn’t believe Celtic played well enough, and didn’t think they came close to threatening Hamilton in the second half.
But, perhaps his most mind-boggling comment was that James Forrest produced a “mediocre” performance for his standards. Jimmy scored the winner on the day and nearly grabbed a second too.
Commons, however, was in full flow on Superscoreboard. Speaking to the Clyde 1 show post-match, he let rip at the Hoops’ display vs Accies.
“I think if you analysed the second-half, he will be disappointed at the amount of loose balls that were played, the sloppiness that came into Celtic’s defence. If they were playing against a better team, Celtic could’ve been in trouble.
“Watching the game live, there was only one team who was going to get a goal in the second half, and it was Hamilton. Celtic didn’t even look like they were going to get into the opposition’s box.
“He (Lennon) alluded to James Forrest’s performance which I thought was, for his standards, mediocre at best. I don’t think he had the most glittering of performances.”
Is Commons trying too hard to be controversial?
We get it. Commons doesn’t want to come across as too pro-Celtic and ends up going too far the other way. We’ve seen it all before with Andy Walker and Charlie Nicholas respectively.
However, his comments on yesterday’s display are totally unfair on the players. Sure, it was by no means a blistering performance. However, Hamilton’s surface isn’t a ground for good football.
The second-half performance was poor, and Commons is right to criticise it. However, he goes way over the top and clearly exaggerates Hamilton’s apparent dominance. For example, he talks about Celtic not looking like getting into the opponents’ box. That’s despite the fact Forrest rattled the bar, Bayo missed a header, and Christie fired over from in and around the penalty area in the second half.
He then goes on to call Forrest’s performance “mediocre at best”. It’s an incredible term to use for a man who scored the winning goal and nearly had a brace. Perhaps it’s symbolic of the criticism Forrest has had to deal with throughout his career. People always expect him to give more.
But at the end of the day, Celtic got the points after a tough international break. Five players in yesterday’s starting XI featured for their countries too. There was bound to be some tiredness.
Commons has gone way over the top here. It wasn’t the best performance, but it didn’t have to be as we took all three points from South Lanarkshire.
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