Celtic earned a professional three points against Dundee yesterday to prolong their stay at the top of the Scottish Premiership.
Despite facing a well-drilled Dundee side set out by Tony Docherty, Alistair Johnston eventually broke the deadlock on the hour mark before Arne Engels’ penalty moments later settled the scoring.
Antonio Portales pulled down Kyogo Furuhashi to prompt the spot-kick award, which wasn’t overturned by VAR despite protestations from the away dugout.
Either way, Celtic deserved their victory over Dundee. Stat-trackers Fotmob show they put up an Expected Goal tally of 4.93 on the night, by far their best of the Scottish Premiership campaign.
Truthfully, the Bhoys should’ve been well out of sight before they ended up getting the job done, but the visiting boss has now offered his verdict on the tale of the tape at Parkhead.
Tony Docherty’s verdict on Celtic and Kyogo penalty award
Speaking to The Courier, Docherty praised his side for their resilience against a ‘fantastic’ Celtic outfit, but he had a few choice words to say about the penalty awarded to the hosts to double the scoring.
He stated: “I was really pleased. I thought it was a sterling effort. A really good, strong performance. It’s a difficult place to come. You’re playing against a top, top opponent. They’re a fantastic team. They move the ball. They get into good areas.
“I asked the players tonight to be resolute, to be really organised. We’d worked on a shape and to try and execute a game plan, which I think they did.
“So I was really proud of them. I thought the boys deserved a clean sheet for the amount of work they put in. I think the penalty is really soft. There’s a foul that leads up to it on Mo Sylla.
“I don’t know why they don’t pick that up. I’ve seen it back. And I think Antonio Portales touches the ball and he doesn’t even know where Kyogo is. Kyogo goes down and Tony’s telling me, and I’ve seen it myself, I don’t think it’s a penalty.
“But when it goes to 2-0, that makes it so much more difficult. I don’t think the boys deserved that. So I was really proud of their performance tonight and I thought they were hard done by for that penalty.”
Celtic and Aberdeen lead the way ahead of weekend meeting
Leaving the league standings at an intriguing vantage point, Celtic and Aberdeen both sit nine points in front of Rangers after the Dons put Philippe Clement’s side to the sword yesterday at Pittodrie.
Rodgers’ men have now taken 28 points from 30 available in the Scottish Premiership, emphasising their relentless start to the campaign as a fourth consecutive title becomes their priority.
| Position | Team | Played MP | Won W | Drawn D | Lost L | For GF | Against GA | Diff GD | Points Pts |
| 1 |  CelticCeltic | 10 | 9 | 1 | 0 | 29 | 3 | 26 | 28 |
| 2 |  AberdeenAberdeen | 10 | 9 | 1 | 0 | 20 | 9 | 11 | 28 |
| 3 |  RangersRangers | 10 | 6 | 1 | 3 | 15 | 8 | 7 | 19 |
| 4 |  MotherwellMotherwell | 10 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 13 | 13 | 0 | 16 |
This weekend, Celtic meet Aberdeen at Hampden in the Premier Sports Cup semi-final, with Scotland’s two in-form sides set to collide for a place in the first cup final of the season at stake.
Hopefully, the Bhoys can do enough to get themselves within 90 minutes of silverware on Saturday evening.
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