Celtic eased past Partick Thistle at Firhill to book their place in the semi-finals of the Premier Sports Cup with the minimum of fuss.
A sell-out crowd of 8817 packed into the three sides of the famous old stadium, with the away fans arriving to make a point to their board and the home support arriving with hopes of pulling off an almighty upset, but once two quickfire Celtic goals had flown in just before the half hour, that was never likely to materialise.
It was the rather unfashionable pair of Yang Hyun-jun and Liam Scales who got those goals, before new arrival Sebastian Tounekti capped off another exciting showing by getting the third early in the second period.
Substitute Luke McCowan put the icing on the cake by capitalising on an error to slide home the fourth, which was probably a fair enough reflection of the contest.
Celtic put off-field rancour to the side
The press box wasn’t ideally positioned to see the scale of the Celtic supports’ pre-match protest against their club board, given it was right behind them, but the message was clear enough. Placards were held aloft featuring the faces of those deemed responsible for the failures of their summer transfer window and a loud chorus of ‘sack the board’ rang around Firhill.
If the club’s custodians thought that the explanations they offered during the week - along with the announcement of their bumper profits and bulging bank balance - for just how they managed to make such a mess of their summer business cut any ice with a simmering fanbase, they were clearly mistaken.
As it was, the players managed to put the off-field dramas to one side and avoided any dramas of their own against their Championship opponents, but it seems that unrest at the way that Celtic is being run will remain as background noise to their season for the foreseeable.
Thistle dreams dashed as long wait for Celtic win goes on
It was a tale of two displays pre-match, with the Thistle tifo in the John Lambie Stand an altogether more positive affair than their visitors in the Jackie Husband.
Theirs was an impressive visual reminder of their shock 1971 League Cup thumping of Celtic, when they were famously given no chance by Grandstand presenter Sam Leitch beforehand before racing into a four-goal lead in 37 minutes at the national stadium.
The Jags fans who packed in behind the goal dared the class of 2025 to dream again, but alas, a return to Hampden was never really on the cards here. It is now 11102 days and counting since they last tasted victory over these particular fellow Glaswegians, and they could probably have played for the same time again without scoring here.
They started solidly enough, mind you, with Lee Ashcroft and Dan O’Reilly working overtime and former Celt Tony Watt using all his nous and knowhow up top to win a foul or two and get them up the pitch.
Alas, they couldn’t keep Celtic out for too long though, and the concession of the second goal just a couple of minutes after the opener killed them. And there may be a niggling frustration in the home ranks that they shot themselves in the foot on occasion, particularly with the concession of the cheapest of goals for Celtic’s fourth, and didn’t really show much of anything in an attacking sense.
Easier said than done against the Premiership champions, of course, and there is still more than enough about this Thistle side to allow their fans to continue to dream of a return to the topflight next season.
Benjamin Nygren back in the groove
The Swede burst onto the scene at Celtic at the start of this season, scoring three times in the first three games of the Premiership campaign before a little quieter period, but he showed his quality here to unpick the lock of a Partick Thistle defence that had started in obdurate mood.
First, he showed strong running to get in down the left and hung a ball up to the back post (albeit with the aid of a deflection) that Yang couldn’t fail to tuck away. Though, in fairness, the Celtic support thought he had somehow conspired to.
It was a bizarre moment, as from the Jackie Husband Stand it appeared he had headed into the sidenetting, but at the end of Firhill infamous for a couple of ghost goals, the ball had indeed found the net, and the delayed celebration eventually came.
The second goal, around two minutes later, was a little more conventional, with Nygren showing his dead ball prowess from a corner to allow Scales to power a header towards the top corner that proved too strong for Lewis Budinaukas to handle, and that was the game right there.
Exciting Tounekti shows folly of delay in his signing
The Tunisian has certainly caught the eye in his fledgling Celtic career, and he followed up his impressive showing at Rugby Park with another lively display here, bagging his first goal for his new club in the process.
And a fine goal it was too. Thistle came out after the interval looking to nick a goal and make a game of it again, but any notion of that was soon snuffed out as Celtic flexed their muscle to extinguish the last flicker of Jags hope.
Reo Hatate played a clever ball out to the left to release Tounekti, who advanced towards the area, played a delightful one-two with Kelechi Iheanacho and slid the ball confidently under Budinaukas.
It was a goal much enjoyed by the large away support, but also one that further stoked the theory that had Tounekti been brought in a few weeks earlier, then Celtic may well have been playing in the Champions League last week instead of travelling to Belgrade on Wednesday on Europa League duty.
Paulo Bernardo sighted
The Lord Lucan of the Celtic squad hasn’t been seen since lasting just under an hour on his only start of the season so far – the home win over Livingston on August 23rd – and considering the talent that he undoubtedly possesses, that is something that has puzzled many.
The Celtic midfield is of course the strongest area of their team in terms of strength in depth, and is difficult to break into, as £11m man Arne Engels (also a substitute here) is finding, but the Portuguese may have expected to feature off the bench at least a great deal more than he has.
He has work to do, clearly, to convince Brendan Rodgers.
