Lex

FT 2-0 Yep well deserved three points and the good home form continues. Back to third as it stands, what crisis? First goal was a lovely stramash OG from a corner that ended up a foot over the line. Needed one of those to break the duck. Bizarrely wasn't given on field and needed a VAR intervention. Second goal nice ball from Tanser and low strike by Ayunga, looked like the keeper should have saved it to me but he didn't and it went underneath him, good. Saw it out pretty comfortably after that, County had a couple of half chances but never looked like getting back into it. Think Nahmani and Ayunga should start against Motherwell next week, they worked well together. No new manager bounce from them I hope.

HT 0-0 Yet another half without a goal. Actually not been as tough a watch as I've been expecting, to be fair. We're playing okay, had some nice passing moves and created some good chances. Kiltie hit the bar with a lovely flick. Ayunga gets himself through one on one and should score, but as you'd expect from someone with his goal record, he does not score, but the intent's definitely there. Nahmani looked lively and had some good touches, got a shot off that forced a decent save from Laidlaw. As with the St Johnstone game during the week the lack of a finishing touch is our downfall and another sucker punch goal from County wouldn't surprise anyone. Probably finish 0-0.

And Nahmani does start, good! Certainly won’t do any worse than any of our other ‘strikers’. Still no place for Baccus and McMenamin in the starting 11, I guess its Small at right wing back.

If Ross County win this they would be two points behind us having played a game less. This is a team whose early season form was so bad that they sacked their manager. Certainly puts our great start into context and shows how quickly things can change in this turgid, attritional league. However, I don’t think we will lose. For all our overall form has been awful recently, we’re still pretty good at home. The only team to beat us in Paisley this season in all competitions is Rangers, and that was only after we went down to ten men in the first half. A goal would be a nice starting point, none of our players have scored in any of our last five games. Start Nahmani please. Like all of our games over the last month, I’m expecting another tough watch. 0-0

The glaring issue is the lack of goals from our strikers, and we seen their struggles again last night. On our early run of form our goals were mainly coming from Strain and Tanser. Strain’s out and teams have worked out if they stop Tanser they will probably stop us scoring, it was never going to be sustainable. Our strikers league goals this season: Olusanya 1 Nahmani 1 Mandron 3 Jamieson 1 Grieve 2 Ayunga 0 (2 from open play last season) They’re all getting minutes too, barring Nahmani they’ve all started games. There’s a different starting combination of two of them in almost every game and there will be again on Saturday. We have one goal in our last five games, which was an in-off own goal against Livingston. The last Saints player to score a goal was Jamieson against Hibs over a month ago. We’ve scored zero goals against Dundee, County and St Johnstone since then, that’s blanks against three teams you’d expect to finish in the bottom six. We have consecutive home games against Ross County and Motherwell now, two of the easiest games you’ll get in this league. We’ll know more when we’ve played those two, fail to win either and we will likely be in the bottom six by Christmas. Four or more points and all is fine. As for the starting striker selection tombola i hope Nahmani comes out of it on Saturday. Why not, he can’t do any worse.

City below Villa in December, same amount of games played aswell. Great stuff, we certainly have a title race.

I wonder if Data Dave is asking the Killie chairman for permission to speak to Del right now.

FT 1-0 Can have no complaints. Second midweek in a row we’ve turned in a brutal performance on the road and lost 1-0 to a late goal. Feel for the fans that have made either or both journeys, horrible. We are on quite the slide. Familiar story of us being hopeless upfront and not much better defensively. Thats us got one goal in the last five games, and that was in an off own goal against Livingston. No goals against Dundee, Rangers, Ross County and now St Johnstone. Scary stuff. This home game against County at the weekend looks very important now.

Got to admire the brass neck of Chris Kane’s cheating there. Even he looked embarrassed with himself when he got up. I wonder if we will ever score again?

HT 0-0 Yet another half of football without a goal then. We actually had the best chance but Ayunga fluffed his lines. St Johnstone did have a decent effort shortly after, volleyed straight at the keeper. Not much happening apart from that. Got to feel for Bolton and Small, both presumably brought in on loan as full back cover. Our first choice full back gets injured and he’s playing a 35 year old midfielder there, the 35 year old midfielder goes off injured and he brings on an attacking midfielder to play there. Damning indictment of what the manager thinks of them, I expect both to leave in January, there’s no point in either of them being here.

Interesting team. He’s dropped the underperforming McMenamin and Taylor and given a first Premiership start to Jamieson and brought Dunne back in. Baccus still can’t get in the team ahead of CBM. The team haven’t been playing well so good to see changes being made.

Ooft. Arsenal looking like they could do it this year. What a signing Rice has been.

What a game that was again, Barclays delivering some right rip snorters this season. Title race well on. That reffing decision at the end one of the most bizarre I’ve ever seen, rightly plays the advantage, looks up, sees Grealish running through on goal, brings it back for the free kick

FT 2-0 Dull and boring stuff and our poor form on the road continues. Didn’t carry a threat going forward and weren’t great defensively, can have no complaints about the result. Perth next.

HT 1-0 Poor game, two poor teams, not much happening up until the goal really. Poor goal from our perspective, lost too many tackles all over the pitch. O’Hara and Gogic should be doing better. Guess that’s game over now, but you never know.

Baccus dropped again, manager really seems to not fancy him in these kind of games. Not a huge surprise given his last two performances right enough. Flynn against Sima should be an… interesting watch.

Very tough group that, think we’ve been a bit unlucky there.

FT 1-0 Feel that was quite similar to the Livi game at the weekend in many ways. It was an absolutely chronic watch with a solitary scrappy goal separating two poor sides. We conceded the scrappy goal tonight, we scored it at the weekend. It's better than two 0-0's I suppose, which it could easily have been. The goal is a corner headed in from about 4 yards with the goalkeeper glued to his line. He's simply got to come for that, even if he doesn't get it he's going to impact the play much more than standing on his line and watching it go in, which is what he did. Poor goalkeeping. I don't think McMenamin is a wing back, Bolton has to be worth a go in there, or Fraser. We didn't do enough going forward all night but we should have had a penalty. Ibrox on Sunday then.

HT 0-0 Brutal stuff. Don’t think either side has had a single chance. White with a half chance with his shot on the turn maybe? Gogic heading well wide from a corner was as good as it got from us. Could still win here of course, but it’s looking very much like a nil nil.

Now back to the start of the annual Celtic fan cycle. They’ll go on a run between now and May where they’ll win almost every game, win the league by 10+ points and probably win the Scottish Cup too. They’ll then spend the summer convincing themselves they’ve learned from previous experience in the Champions League and they’re now a stronger team and it will be different this time. They’ll then get their arses handed to them and finish bottom of the group. Rinse. Repeat.

Lennon absolutely spewing The reason you’re going out bottom again is because you’re rubbish, not because you’re unlucky.

This Lazio team playing very much like the 11th placed Serie A team they are, they’re hopeless. Celtic got a right easy draw this year, and they’re still going to finish bottom.

Yeah he's certainly better than many players of a similar age who have more caps than him. I think your last sentence is right, he's English and he was never that arsed about playing for Scotland. He's 33 in a couple of months, so he won't be playing for us again.

FT 1-0 Job done. Pretty tough watch that second half, neither team could string more than two passes together it seemed. Plenty of free kicks and injuries right enough. Looked like we had clinched it with five minutes to go, VAR’d for offside after a lengthy delay. Brutal. But we saw it out fine. Livi definitely lacking the steel they’ve had in previous years, they were flat all game. Best player for us Kiltie I think, lovely bit of skill in the first half and involved in the goal again. Mr Consistent, superb player.

HT 1-0 Scrappy half as expected. Livi probably started the brighter, cracked the bar around the 30 minute mark, should have scored. Everything good we’ve done has been down our left through Kiltie and Tanser, no surprise when the goal came down that side. Kiltie released by a fantastic ball from CBM and his shot is saved low down and then scrambled in by Mandron on the rebound. Been brighter since, ayunga hitting the bar. Livi do look a bit like a team who’ve just lost five on the bounce, can see that goal take the air out them. Long way to go but would be very disappointed if we didn’t win from here.