2018-05-09: Celtic 0-0 Kilmarnock, SP

Match Pictures | Matches: 2017 – 2018 | 2017-18 Pictures

Trivia

• Celtic play a second string team due to injuries & resting players for Scottish Cup final in a week.
• Penultimate league match. Midweek game.
• Celtic only had ONE shot on target in 90mins, Kilmarnock never even had a shot at goal! Drab game.
• Food Bank Drive charity collection of food parcels again at Celtic. Well done to all who helped on this effort.
• Reports that Edouard out for rest of the season due to Hamstring injury, could miss Cup final.
• Debut for Euan Henderson (wee brother of Liam Henderson (ex-Celt))
• Hibernian head coach Neil Lennon could leave the club after revealing he will consider his future. A 2-1 defeat to Hearts means Hibs can no longer finish second, and the Northern Irishman says fourth would be "unacceptable". Hibs host Sevco on Sunday, but need a six-goal victory to catch them.
• Sevco Chairman Dave King believes Steven Gerrard can turn the balance of power in Scottish football back in Sevco’s favour by stemming the steady flow of Champions League money into Celtic’s bank account. King has predicted it will require just one league title win for the Ibrox club to make Celtic’s current dominance of the domestic scene fall like “a pack of cards”.He said: “We appoint a manager who can win games and we take one league away from Celtic. We only need one. We don’t need two or three. We need one. Once we take one away, it’s a pack of cards.” We all just laughed.
• Snooker player & Celtic fan John Higgins in World final, sadly was to lose 18-16. A hard fought final.

Review

(fatboab of KDS)
That was dull. And I got drenched .

Could be the game with the least attempts on goal ever. And Liberace never even turned up for his standing ovation.

(martino of KDS)
ost entertaining part of the night was Tom Boyd talking about stopping the 10 in a row of "our then great rivals"

Celtic with no strikers in the squad, Kilmarnock in park the bus mode and a ref who couldn't be arsed with the effort of pulling a yellow card from his pocket no matter how much it was merited. Had 0-0 all over it from about 20 minutes onwards. We could all have went home at half-time.

The next time someone suggests an 18 team league because there will be less pressure on teams in the middle of the league so they'll play more open football should be made to watch all 90 minutes of that.

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Stats

Home Team
Celtic
Away Team
Kilmarnock

Possession
Home73%
Away27%

Shots
Home10
Away0

Shots on Target
Home1
Away0

Corners
Home10
Away2

Fouls
Home11
Away10

Articles

Celtic 0-0 Kilmarnock: Champions draw a blank at home
Celtic midfielder Stuart Armstrong watches as Kilmarnock goalkeeper Jamie MacDonald dives to save his close-range effort. Picture: SNS
Celtic midfielder Stuart Armstrong watches as Kilmarnock goalkeeper Jamie MacDonald dives to save his close-range effort. Picture: SNS
Andrew Smith
Published: 23:08
Updated: 23:17 Wednesday 09 May 2018
https://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/competitions/premiership/celtic-0-0-kilmarnock-champions-draw-a-blank-at-home-1-4737472

The only aspect of this nothingy – in all respects – game worth registering was that it continued a surprising trend. As dominant as the, now, seven-in-a-row champions have been under Brendan Rodgers, the scoreless encounter with Kilmarnock was Celtic’s third at home inside only five games. Surprising when it is considered they scored in every single domestic encounter for a year-and-a-half.

As if any of this matters in the grand scheme of things, of course. However, what will matter to Kilmarnock at least is that draw means they have shared the spoils with their more illustrious opponents in the Premiership this season with a win, two draws and only one defeat – that pre-Steve Clarke’s arrival – in their four meetings.

Aside from preserving a home domestic unbeaten record that stretches back two-and-a-half years, there was little in last night’s game for Celtic. With the title safely stashed, they are effectively marking the time until they start their preparations in earnest next week for the Scottish Cup final. The composition of the team reflected the fact that Rodgers is thinking beyond the Premiership commitments, which took Kilmarnock to Parkhead last night and will bring Aberdeen to Glasgow’s east end for the champions’ title party.

There was no sign of Moussa Dembele, the one fully-fit striker in the Celtic squad. The Frenchman is probably being fitted out for a bubble wrap suit with the cup final ten days away. Rodgers hauled him off as soon as Odsonne Edouard was lost to a season-ending hamstring pull in Sunday’s win over Hearts, and his caution is understandable with Leigh Griffiths having being hospitalised with tonsillitis.

The absence of this attacking trident meant on-loan Manchester City winger Patrick Roberts being played through the middle, and supported by Scott Sinclair and James Forrest on the flank. Forrest was one of this season’s mainstays to be stripped from the first whistle last night, with captain Scott Brown, Callum McGregor and Kristoffer Ajer the others.

Centre-back Jozo Simunovic made his first start since his red card in the dramatic derby win at Ibrox in March. The fact he, like Stuart Armstrong, Roberts and Sinclair, could be cast as an understudy being afforded a rare central role told of the quiet evolution in the Celtic ranks this season.

All four men were pivots in Rodgers’ debut season treble. In the chase for an unprecedented second successive clean sweep of the Scottish honours – in part because of injury – they have become peripheral figures.

Any action of note felt like it was peripheral in a first 45 minutes that passed slowly, tediously slowly. That would probably have pleased Kilmarnock’s Clarke. The former West Brom manager has achieved very great things this season in transforming the Ayrshire club from relegation prospects to certain fifth-place finishers across seven months in charge. But he has not been a man to lose sight of his team’s limitations and, as with the narrow loss at Ibrox on Saturday, he clearly set out with the aim of suffocating his Glasgow hosts last night.

Three post-split defeats for a Killie side that hadn’t lost in their previous 12 league encounters might have encouraged a certain retrenchment from Clarke when setting out his team.

It sort of worked, even if it was a case of Celtic doing a whole lot of push and Kilmarnock doing a whole lot of standing firm for the first hour. The one occasion Rodgers’ men seemed to have disrupted that cycle came after half an hour when they had the ball in the net after Simunovic headed on an Armstrong 
free-kick from the left. Celebrations were cut short when it emerged that Ajer had got a touch on the effort of his fellow centre-back when in an offside position.

Forays down the left and right from Sinclair and Forrest gave Killie the most to think about in the opening period. From one, the Englishman dinked an effort that rolled across the face of goal, while Forrest lofted a header just over the bar.

Jamie MacDonald made a fine block from Armstrong as Celtic demonstrated the greater urgency early in the second period. Not enough for the liking of Rodgers, though, who sent on go-to men Kieran 
Tierney and Tom Rogic for the last 25 minutes. They made Celtic more likely to score. As did debutant Ewan Henderson with a bright cameo. But the breakthrough would not come – even when Jack Hendry was able to rise unchallenged to meet a McGregor corner in the 81st minute. The defender inexplicably failed to find the target with that stretching out in front of him. He was left holding head in hands. Come the final whistle, plenty others inside Celtic Park were left shaking theirs at the non-event they had witnessed.

BBC

By Martin Dowden

BBC Scotland at Celtic Park

9 hours ago From the section Scottish Premiership

Highlights: Celtic 0-0 Kilmarnock

Celtic spurned a number of chances as Kilmarnock held the champions to a goal-less draw.

The home side also saw a first-half goal disallowed, with Kristoffer Ajer judged to be offside has he turned in Jozo Simunovic's header.

After the break, Stuart Armstrong's close-range shot was saved and Jack Hendry missed two efforts.

Kilmarnock battled gamely against a much-changed Celtic side in a game that lacked tempo and edge.

This fixture was tagged as meaningless given the relative positions of both sides and the opening half-hour lived up to that billing.

Chances were initially at a premium. In fact, they were non-existent during the opening third.
Celtic defender Kristoffer Ajer against Kilmarnock
Celtic defender Kristoffer Ajer saw his goal ruled out for offside

Celtic made six changes to the starting line-up from their 3-1 win over Hearts at the weekend, but still looked strong with the likes of Scott Sinclair and Patrick Roberts in their ranks.

Kilmarnock started with top scorer Kris Boyd on the bench and with midfielder Youssouf Mulumbu operating in an advanced position.

They were very well organised and disciplined, restricting Celtic and looking to break when possible.

The home side thought they had made the breakthrough when Simunovic nodded a free kick towards goal. Ajer got a touch and found the net, but was ruled offside. To further Celtic's frustration, the ball may well have found the target without the young Norwegian's intervention.

That moment seemed to wake Brendan Rodgers' side from their slumbers and they looked a touch more purposeful.

Callum McGregor found James Forrest inside the box, but his looping header sailed narrowly over with Kilmarnock goalkeeper Jamie MacDonald in complete control.
Celtic midfielder Stuart Armstrong's header is saved by Kilmarnock's Jamie MacDonald
Stuart Armstrong's close-range effort was thwarted by Kilmarnock goalkeeper Jamie MacDonald

Armstrong then released Sinclair into the box and he dinked the ball past MacDonald but the angle beat him and his effort bounced wide of the far post.

After the break it was Sinclair again who looked most threatening early on. He danced into the box then squared for Armstrong, but MacDonald was equal to his first-time attempt and cleared with his trailing foot.

Kilmarnock did venture forward where possible, although that subsided as the game wore on. Greg Kiltie almost created an opener when he stole in from the right, but Aaron Tshibola struck wide.

Rodgers introduced Tom Rogic and Kieran Tierney midway through the second half and it seemed to initially make a difference to the team's tempo, but not enough to breach Kilmarnock's determined defending.

Hendry did have one header from a corner cleared from the line then somehow nodded another just past when it looked a certain goal.

Despite dominating possession and territory, Celtic failed to exert sustained pressure on MacDonald in the Kilmarnock goal.

The draw means little in the grand scheme of things, but for Kilmarnock in particular it is another positive outcome in a season that has been littered with them.