Pat Bonner described Scott Bain error as ‘a howler’ – has it opened a door for Craig Gordon?

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Former Celtic goalkeeper and current BBC Scotland pundit Pat Bonner had a damning assessment of Scott Bain’s performance on Saturday.

It was the current Hoops number one’s flapping error that allowed Motherwell to take the lead against the Scottish champions at Fir Park.

Liam Donnelly’s long range effort should have been handily parried away, but Bain was slow to get down and get strong hands to the ball.

As quoted by BBC Scotland (10/08 live match page, 12:21), Bonner said of the error: “I would expect Scott Bain to save that Liam Donnelly shot. He puts his head on his hands after the goal, he knows he’s made a howler.”

The goalkeeper was also slated by some fans for his display.

Ultimately there was no damage done. The Hoops would go on to dominate the match and finish 5-2 winners.

It does however re-ignite the debate over the goalkeeper position at Celtic.

With competition between Bain and Craig Gordon currently fierce, has the mistake opened the door for the veteran to reclaim the number one spot?

Bain vs Gordon

It would of course be incredibly harsh to see Bain completely dropped on the back of one mistake. Then again Gordon lost his place initially on the back of a good performance at Ibrox.

Bain has helped keep a tremendous amount of clean sheets since January. Recently though there have been signs of complacency in his game. His distribution looks pretty shaky.

A hungry Gordon could breathe a bit of life into the goalkeeper position.

Lennon has addressed the selection battle this summer already, telling The Daily Record in July: “Craig has really impressed me in training and in the bounce games that we’ve played, and Scott has been brilliant for me.

“Since I came in, he’s been absolutely outstanding. It’s something that we’ll gauge as we go along. I’m not going to treat Scott Bain badly, if he’s performing well, as he has done, then it’s not a difficult thing to keep the momentum going that way.”

Clearly Gordon, who signed for the club in the transition between the Lennon and Ronny Deila reigns, is impressing his manager. The veteran has already made an appearance this season at home to Nomme Kalju.

It seems likely that Bain will retain his place against Cluj on Tuesday to maintain stability in a vital match. The manager has been clear the position is the Scotland international’s to lose.

Going forward though, Lennon may feel tempted to utilise Gordon more readily on the back of yesterday’s error.