Celtic have had an extremely rewarding October despite Livingston blip

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Celtic rounded off October with a scary result against Livingston just 1 day before Halloween, but it’s important it’s all put into some perspective.

It’s difficult to get over the rawness of yesterday. Undoubtedly. This is because we all viewed it as a marker. A chance to go top of the Premiership and pile pressure on Rangers ahead of a tough-looking trip to Fir Park.

We had just come off 5 consecutive wins and secured victories at difficult places such as Pittodrie, Fir Park, and Easter Road respectively. This was supposed to be the easy bit. Missing a last-minute penalty didn’t help the emotion after the game either.

As predicted, Rangers overcame Motherwell this afternoon to go back to being 4 points clear. Naturally a disappointment given we had narrowed the gap just days ago. But the truth is that it’s no disaster and that it’s anything but fatal for us.

In fact, we’re simply back to where we were last week after beating St Johnstone 2-0. There were still plenty of supporters confident after that one of reining Rangers in. So let’s not pretend it’s all doom and gloom. Especially when you look back to where we were at the start of the month.

When Celtic were mauled 4-0 by Bayer Leverkusen, it was Aberdeen at Pittodrie that was next on the agenda. That was to be followed by trips to Motherwell and Hibs. We were already 6 points behind Rangers and below Hearts, Hibs, and Dundee United too. There were genuine fears we were going to be out of the title race by this stage.

Celtic secure successful October despite rough end

However, we secured 3 massive away wins, a big home win against St Johnstone, and a Europa League success against Ferencvaros to breathe some life into our Euro campaign. Not to mention we’ve watched Rangers stumble to another couple of slip-ups.

This month, we’ve narrowed the gap at the top by 2 points. That’s a return we would’ve taken back at the beginning of October. So even though it could’ve been a touch better, we can’t complain that it wasn’t totally perfect.

In addition to that, Postecoglou has continued to get key players back as he gets to grips with his strongest XI. You feel the manager now knows who his best players are. Many others still have plenty of quality that they’ve still to show.

So it’s important we put what we saw yesterday into perspective. Yes, it was a poor performance. Yes, it was 2 dropped points and yes, it ultimately halts our winning run.

But between now and the Rangers game on January 2nd, our rivals have a host of difficult away trips on the agenda. The Tony Macaroni Arena, Easter Road, Tynecastle, and Pittodrie all away them in the coming months. There are going to be plenty of opportunities for us to take advantage of slip-ups.

So let’s look at the bigger picture. 2 points gained on our rivals as we’ve slowly crept up the table. You can’t deny it’s been a successful month as we look ahead to a vital November period.

In other news, How Ferencvaros camp is feeling heading into Celtic clash