Neil Lennon has promised Celtic supporters that his team is working on scoring earlier as he looks to halt what he believes to be “an anxiety” when we don’t.
The Hoops again struggled to get an early strike against Kilmarnock this afternoon as second-half efforts from Moi Elyounoussi and Shane Duffy secured a big three points.
In recent domestic games, Celtic have failed to seize the initiative early on. A failure to score in the first half in each of our last four domestic games has left us licking our wounds after dropped points or cup exits.
But even though we survived any damage this afternoon, Lennon is still looking to solve what remains a bit of a problem at Parkhead.
Speaking to Celtic TV post-match, Lennon said: “There’s a bit of anxiety at times when we don’t get the first goal or the early goal and that was apparent last week and even against Ross County. We’re trying to work on that.
“I thought we had good balance in the first half and a couple of good chances – we worked the goalkeeper. In the second half we just said ‘Look, stay on it. Next 10-15 minutes are really important’.
“We started the second half brilliantly, and we never looked back after that.”
Early starts set the tone
Today was both a good performance and a fine result, but Lennon is right in the sense that these early starts is something we’re missing pretty badly.
It’s important to remember that taking the initiative in games can really set the tone. As much as we try not to look at what our rivals are doing well, they have managed to score in the first half-hour more often than not this season. There’s a reason they’re a fiar bit ahead of us in the league at the moment.
That’s a trait we need to get back, because it’s been a staple of our nine-in-a-row run. We can’t allow it to desert us during the 10 season.
Everything that happened against Kilmarnock this afternoon was fine. We bagged the points with a comfortable win and notched a vital clean sheet. All well and good, but an earlier goal would’ve made for a much more relaxing afternoon for the supporters.
With the Scottish Cup final against Hearts coming up next week, that one would certainly provide us with a huge opportunity to get our shooting boots on early once again. A goal in the first half-hour against the Jambos would really ease the nerves that would undoubtedly be there.
It’s reassuring to know that this is something Lennon has noticed as it’s something that most certainly needs to be rectified. Let’s see if we can do just that in the coming games. With matches against Hearts, Ross County, Hamilton, and Dundee United coming up – there are some real opportunities there to start early.
In other news, Kris Ajer made a classy post-match gesture as he bigged up his struggling team-mate.
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