The long-awaited resumption of the Scottish Premiership didn’t quite go as planned yesterday for Celtic as more dropped points leave the door open for Rangers to close the gap at the top of the league.
In another unusual home draw, Brendan Rodgers‘ side stuttered and stammered against a Motherwell side who have been struggling in the league recently.
After the 6-0 drubbing of Aberdeen just before the international break, the Hoops fans would have been looking forward to another goal-fest against Stuart Kettlewell’s team who haven’t won since the beginning of September.
A David Turnbull penalty late on looked like it might have sealed all three points for Celtic but a 90th minute equaliser just summed up a day where the Hoops huffed and puffed their way to another home draw.
And former Rangers striker, Neil McCann, was in no doubt who was to blame for The Steelmen’s goal.
McCann said [BBC Sportscene], “I think Joe Hart needs to command a six-yard box a lot more. He has placed [Greg] Taylor there to stop the block from Obika and to try and gain some space he can move his feet to come and command that area.
“I don’t think he did. I don’t think he covered himself in glory with that either.”
Joe Hart’s inability to command his goalmouth has been a bugbear not only for me but for many Celtic supporters over the past two seasons.
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Whilst Hart is a very fine shot-stopper, there have been times when his inability to come and collect the ball has been costly for Celtic.
The most recent example was in the Champions League defeat against Atletico Madrid where Hart fluffed a punch clearance and gave the ball directly back to Atletico and, well, we all know what happened there.
This further mistake will only put the spotlight back on Brendan Rodgers’ need to bring in another ‘keeper in January and also whether or not Hart is genuinely worth that new contract as the clock on his current deal continues to tick down.
In other news, Mark Guidi believes Celtic could spend £5m to sign 23-year-old soon