Celtic fans are itching for their club to secure 10-in-a-row, but one of their players did that yesterday – Scott Bain.
Indeed, the Hoops goalkeeper kept his 10th consecutive clean sheet in impressive fashion against St Johnstone at McDiarmid Park.
Despite a relatively quiet day for the former Dundee shot-stopper, he still managed to rack up yet another shut-out. And he did so whilst managing to make a good stop when one-on-one with Matthew Kennedy of St Johnstone.
It can be argued that Bain perhaps doesn’t have too much to do when he’s between the sticks. The dominance of the Celtic defence and midfield has certainly kept the goalkeeper quiet in recent matches.
But his distribution is a big factor in this, and he’s now fully earned the tag of being Celtic’s number one.
Whilst Craig Gordon has and will continue to be a terrific servant to Celtic, his kicking can seriously be called into question. He consistently gives the ball away with the ball at his feet, and this invites teams onto the Hoops.
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No coincidence that clean sheets are flowing
It’s no coincidence that since Bain has been thrown in, Celtic have looked a lot more reliable defensively. Even when called upon, the former Hibs man has made some terrific stops. Take Airdrieonians for example.
These performances don’t deserve to go unnoticed, and neither does his 10-game record.
Brendan Rodgers hasn’t yet labeled Bain as his number one, but he’s now started the last five matches and looked as solid as anyone in the Celtic goal over the Northern Irishman’s tenure.
Yet, it doesn’t quite feel as if Bain is the number one yet. It wouldn’t surprise anybody if Gordon was thrown back in at some stage in the near future. It certainly wouldn’t surprise some if Gordon found his way back between the sticks for Valencia on February 14th.
But it’s difficult to ague against Bain’s record and displays so far. The idea that he hasn’t done much yet would be a myth, as he’s had to be composed on the ball under pressure on many occasions. It takes a lot to make yourself look so quiet in goal for such a long period of time, and Bain has been doing just that.
At this point, he deserves to be named Celtic’s official number one. He’s performing well enough, racking up the clean sheets, and generally performing better than Gordon.
What more do you want?