Today, we start off a new series at 67HailHail called our End of Season Reports.
Here, we go through each individual player and give an analysis of their season as a whole as well as what the future could hold for them. From Odsonne Edouard to Marvin Compper, we’ll be tackling every single player that featured for the first-team over the course of campaign (or just hung around in Compper’s case). And today, we start off with goalkeeper Scott Bain.
From squad man to number one
It started off as “goalkeeper Scott Bain”, now it’s “Celtic number one Scott Bain”. Yes, it’s a tag the Scotland internationalist has thoroughly earned with a fine clean sheet record since the winter break.
Indeed, Bain has effectively only had half a season playing consistent football. But it all started beautifully during the first half as he played in all four Betfred Cup matches and conceded just one goal. He was always second-fiddle to Craig Gordon during Premiership and European outings, but he had already helped steer Celtic to the first part of the Treble Treble.
But something happened over winter. Something just seemed to click in Brendan Rodgers’ head. With a Scottish Cup clash against Airdrieonians looming at Parkhead, Rodgers decided to throw Bain back in for cup duty again. This was when he produced the five-save piece of heroism as Celtic saw off Airdrieonians 3-0 at Parkhead.
That was the moment Bain needed. Rodgers continued to put faith in him, and all of a sudden, the former Dundee and Aberdeen man managed to produce eight consecutive domestic clean sheets since the winter break. Overall, including cup matches, he had managed a staggering 13 consecutive shutouts.
Unsportsmanship stopped a potential record
That was only ended by an unsportsmanlike goal from Motherwell at Parkhead. Bain ended the season with a staggering 22 clean sheets from 33 games. This included two Glasgow derby matches and two Europa League last-32 clashes against Valencia. Bain pulled off some stunning stops against the La Liga outfit in particular at the Mestalla.
It was all topped off for him when he earned a Scotland call-up for matches against Kazakhstan and San Marino. Granted, the three goals he shipped against the Kazakhs were a blow, but he was right back on the horse again to mop up the clean sweep domestically. Neil Lennon again chose to stick with Bain, and continued to get the same consistency out of him that Rodgers got before his departure.
Bain was effectively Rodgers’ most fortunate gift. When he needed a goalkeeper, Dundee were happy to offload him to Celtic for whatever reason back in January 2018. Since then, Bain has grown into the jersey, and produced real heroics to keep the Treble Treble bid on course.
The weaknesses were there
But we can’t pretend there weren’t weaknesses either. In the closing matches of the season, Bain looked unconvincing at Ibrox and with his distribution. Against Hearts in both of our final two games of the campaign, Bain looked nervy. It wasn’t something we had previously seen from him in any of his 31 outings for Celtic or Scotland beforehand.
Next year will be colossal for the shot-stopper. Can he cope with the rigorous demands of a full campaign as Celtic number one? Will he even keep his place as Celtic number one before the season begins? Bain has to keep improving to keep the jersey, as some will remain unconvinced.
But when he looks back on the season he’s just had, the goalkeeper has finally come of age in a Celtic jersey.
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