At a time when Celtic have so much to celebrate and to feel good about, the objectionable buffoonery witnessed at St Mirren yesterday was no more surprising than it was depressing. Because, while Ange Postecoglou has built a side to be proud of and is busy parading it around in the Champions League, a large rump of the club’s supporters remain apparently hellbent on trashing its reputation on a global scale.
The obnoxious protests against the royal family at a time of national mourning were both pathetic and predictable and designed to provoke maximum offence and outrage. Of course, there is such a thing as freedom of speech but, even so, there is a time and place to make such a point. And Paisley yesterday afternoon - on the eve of the funeral of the Queen - was neither of them. Rather, it was vulgar and lacking in class which does not reflect well on the Scottish game in general.
It must be said, Celtic’s supporters were not the only ones to bring a big steaming pile of shame to their own doorstep on toe curling weekend for Scotland’s top flight. Dundee United felt the need to issue a statement after being embarrassed into action by its own travelling support at Ibrox. And there were similar scenes at Easter Road ahead of the game between Hibs and Aberdeen.
Sadly, none of it was shocking, at least not to those of us who have become accustomed to - and maybe desensitised by - the deplorable crassness which so often attaches itself to our national sport like a nasty smell. On the field, Ange Postecoglou suffered a first league defeat in almost exactly a year since his last loss in Livingston. But credit here where it is due.
While Celtic’s players put on a performance to match their drab third shirts, St Mirren’s was pretty much faultless from the first whistle until the last. Manager Stephen Robinson got his game plan spot on and his players executed it immaculately all over the pitch. In fact, Curtis Main almost bullied Celtic’s defence into submission with the striker taking full advantage of a rare day off for Cameron Carter-Vickers who was one of six to drop out of Postecoglou’s starting line-up from Wednesday night in Warsaw.
Postecoglou felt, with good reason, that he might be able to ring the changes and even though the big Aussie doesn’t tend to get much wrong he may now have to time to reflect on the wisdom of resting so many key men ahead of an international break. There certainly seemed little to be gained from leaving the likes of Jota, Reo Hatate and Matt O’Riley sitting on the bench even if Postecoglou was taking what he believed to be a calculated gamble.
And especially as this surprise result has thrown an unexpected life jacket across the Clyde to a manager who has been in serious danger of going under over a stormy last couple of weeks.
Having just about come through a full blown crisis on the back of three successive poundings from Celtic, Ajax and Napoli Giovanni van Bronckhorst now finds himself trailing the champions by just two points. That in itself represents a massive result for a man who might well have gone into the weekend fearing it could have been up to seven or eight given the manner in which his team has been misfiring of late.
If Saturday’s 2-1 win over United bought Van Bronckhorst some badly needed breathing space then Celtic’s slip-up will have provided the Dutchman and his Rangers squad with a fresh shot of adrenaline at a moment in time when they were shaky on their feet and at their most vulnerable.
Van Bronckhorst now has the rest of the month to regroup and look for some reinforcements to form an orderly queue and make their way back out of the treatment room. Who knows? He might even use the time to get Ben Davies up to speed while sending out a search party for the lesser spotted Kemar Roofe who has only been seen on social media since the season began.
That Van Bronckhorst seems either unable or unwilling to say when the likes of Davies, Roofe, John Souttar and Filip Helander might be available for selection again adds to the feeling that things are not quite right behind the scenes at Auchenhowie. As, for that matter, does the club’s continued silence over the contract negotiations with the likes of Ryan Kent and Alfredo Morelos
But while these are questions which really do require to be addressed in the interests of transparency, the clamour for answers will have been somewhat stifled by yesterday’s surprise turn of events just along the M8. All of a sudden, and through none of their own doing, Rangers are back in the running as far as this season’s biggest issue is concerned just when they seemed to be in serious danger of dropping out of the race completely.
The disappointment was most certainly etched all over Postecoglou’s face afterwards when he described the defeat as a ‘timely reminder’ to his players that they can’t afford to get too far ahead of themselves, despite the glaringly obvious progress that has been made since his appointment last summer.
Yes, there is indeed a great deal for this club to feel good about now that the new campaign is fully up and running and Postecoglou is already eyeing up new trophies to be polished. It should be a source of regret that yesterday took some of the shine off his Celtic resurgence.
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