Hibs and Celtic collided at Easter Road on a blustery Sunday of Premiership action.
The complex mystery of identifying who exactly Celtic are deepened at a gusty Easter Road. In truth, judging anyone in these conditions was a rum business.
Nothing was as it was meant to be. Everything was topsy turvy, flipped over by the stiffest of stiff breezes. Several players were playing out of position for a start, most gob-smackingly so in the case of Grant Hanley, who was brought on as a forward in the second half as Hibs chased an equaliser. The Easter Road reaction was a mixture of shock, amusement and exhilaration: maybe this madness might work?
At 35, Marink Reedjik is nearly 40 years younger than counterpart Martin O’Neill and was recruited for the Easter Road post for data-driven coaching philosophy. However, he is not above doing something as resolutely old school as pushing a rugged centre-half on as a centre-forward in the hope he can engineer some chaos.
What happened during Hibs 1-2 Celtic?
The trouble was it was already pretty chaotic, thanks chiefly to Storm Boelo. Players would catch a glimpse of something out of the corner of their eye then realise they were tracking back on account of a crinkly Golden Wonder wrapper blown across the pitch.
Amid all this, there were flashes of undoubted quality. The opener just two minutes in was one of them. The quick-thinking Joe Newell, a late addition to the starting XI after Martin Boyle pulled out due to sickness, played a quick free-kick to Owen Elding, who struck a firm shot into the far corner past Celtic ‘keeper Sam Johnstone. The visitors replied almost immediately when Benjamin Nygren’s corner was headed into his own net by Jason Kerr, with the conditions likely partially responsible.
Camilo Duran’s excellent winner after 43 minutes would have been impressive on a calm afternoon in May so scoring it in the teeth of a hooley seemed particularly praiseworthy. Duran drifted in from the right to show struggling Kasper Hogh, recalled for this game, how it’s done. Picking up a loose ball after Marko Ivezic cut out a pass intended for Callum Osmand, the Colombian stepped inside and curled home his tenth goal of the season from around 16 yards.
Hibs persevered but for no tangible reward. They did have chances – Thibault Klidje got just too much on an attempted lob moments before what proved Celtic’s winner, the wind again seemingly implicated. Hanley, meanwhile, did what he was sent on to do and held the ball up in the run-up to Josh Mulligan being presented with a clear opportunity to score with four minutes left. The midfielder's slightly weak left-footed shot was blocked by substitute Cameron Carter-Vickers. If it had fallen for Mulligan’s right foot, Celtic might have been in trouble.
The visitors’ status as flat-track bullies of the Scottish game while being seemingly treated as playthings on the European stage has been commented on by more than one person, among them pundit Chris Sutton. Here they would have been expected to take out their frustrations from midweek, when they were undone in their own turf by Celta Vigo, on the bottom-of-the-table hosts. Having stuck seven past Hearts, riding relatively high in third, what might they do to the Tynecastle side’s city rivals? In the event, it was far from a rout.
If anyone ever stopped to think about actual paying attendees, with Hibs-supporting tennis royalty Andy Murray among the crowd, the match would have been postponed first thing in the morning. Expecting sportspeople to perform anywhere near their true level in the circumstances was fanciful – Murray would back this up. Two goals in the opening six minutes underlined the ensuing chaos. It wasn’t always entertaining chaos, sadly.
Hogh’s already fragile confidence seemed particularly at risk of being smashed to smithereens in the conditions. Another game, another blank. It’s not hard to imagine Martin O’Neill’s thinking on the eve of the match. Give Kasper a start, he’s bound to score against the team at the bottom of the league. Similar reasoning hadn’t worked seven days earlier, when he brought Hogh on with Celtic 5-1 up against Hearts with the unspoken invitation to fill his boots.
A sweeping move from Celtic down the left saw the scampering Osmand cut back for Callum McGregor, who obligingly nudged the ball to his right for the unmarked Hogh. It was a captain’s gift for his struggling teammate. Hogh’s unconvincing effort was blocked by Raphael Sallinger. The Dane was booked for mouthing off shortly before half time and then hooked after 64 minutes. He watched the rest of a game that was becoming increasingly stretched and untidy from the bench and he was joined there by Alistair Johnston, whose hamstring troubles have apparently returned.
The seemingly cursed Canadian had only been on for barely twenty minutes after replacing Colby Donovan—to great fanfare from the visiting supporters—after 52 minutes. A more benign day conditions-wise might have been a wiser date for the full-back’s return.