FROM NEIL DOHERTY AT PARKHEAD: Go figure folks – a few days ago I joined thousands of Hoops fans in Barcelona, many from the county of Donegal.
And we all watched as Celtic came within 10 seconds of taking a point against the greatest team in Europe.
Today I returned to Celtic Park, expecting to at least give Kilmarnock a run for their money.
After all this was a side who hadn’t won here since 1955. That’s when my granda, from Inishowen, was a regular at Parkhead. He’s been dead for 40 years, God bless him.
And I’m glad he didn’t see this performance when Kilmarnock, to be absolutely fair, came and won deservedly 2-0.
After the Nou Camp battle, Georgios Samaras, Scott Brown, Mikael Lustig, Gary Hooper and Victor Wanyama were dropped.
So in came Adam Matthews, James Forrest, Beram Kayal, Kris Commons and Miku.
But it didn’t work.
Former Hoop Cillian Sheridan hit one goal for the visitors and the impressive Liam Kelly hit the other – one in each half.
Neil Lennon was upset. So were we.
“We’ve been brought back down to earth with a big bump. Second half, we created some decent chances, but not enough, and we’ve come away with a massive dose of reality,” said the Armagh man
“But I take responsibility. I picked the team, so the buck stops with me.
“I maybe have to look at my team selection, but I felt that, with the demands of the game on Tuesday, there would have been a bit of fatigue,” he explained.
Maybe too many players have been reading too many headlines about how great they are.
Perhaps they should take a leaf out of Jim McGuinness’s book. He didn’t read a single newspaper during the All-Ireland run-in.
“We tried to freshen it up, but we were poor.
“There was no fluidity in our play, there was no aggression in our play, we were very passive.
“We gave two goals away without Kilmarnock really having to work for it.
“We had good players out of the pitch, but there was no urgency or tempo to our game. We made life very comfortable for Kilmarnock.
“It’s like we were out for a testimonial in the first half. We weren’t turning them or stretching them,” said Lennon, clearly upset,
“I don’t recall a real 50-50 in the game when there was a real desperation for us to get the ball back or move with any real intent.”
The Scottish Communities League Cup quarter-final with St Johnstone lies ahead.
“I’ll be looking for a reaction on Tuesday,” said Neil.
“There will be changes. I can’t accept that.”
Nor can we.
Tags:
