SPL Saturday November 26th 2005

Celtic 0

Dunfermline 1

0:1 Ross 17

Att: 58,203

MIB: C McKay

Celtic: Boruc Telfer Balde McManus Camara McGeady Lennon Petrov Thompson Sutton Hartson.
subs
Pearson for Camara 76
Zurawski for Thompson 62

Time machines - dontcha just hate 'em? From HG Wells to Back To the Future they've caused nothing but grief ... and now we find ourselves trapped in one for an afternoon. Not only was this definitely a MON team it was also eerily and unhappily reminiscent of last season. From the high of the previous game spirits dropped quickly as the team was read out - Hartson and Sutton up front, Majic on the bench, McGeady switched to the right, Thompson on the left and, to cap it all no Maloney or Naka.

Dunfermline were missing around nine first team regulars; we were missing three, but Celtic were the ones falling apart. The Pars keeper had precisely nothing to do in the first half (and not a lot more to do in the second), while Boruc had to pick the ball out of the net thanks to some Rangers style defending and also make a couple of wonder saves. But the defence was the least of the worries.

Let's start in the midfield; after a couple of man-of-the-match performances why was McGeady moved? In a game where you could reasonably expect to have the bulk of the play is a player like Lennon really necessary? Sure he's the club captain but moving the ball forward quickly was the order of the day, simply not his game. Thompson. What is there to say? We all thought that he'd had a howler against Killie earlier in the season, despite his two goals, but this was a remarkable performance. The only thing you could say in his defence was that he wasn't exactly helped by his Easter Island style forward line.

The final glory in a dismal day was the decision to move Petrov out right to allow Sutton to drop back into midfield when Thompson was removed. What is that? Is the message to Petrov 'Sutton is a better central midfielder than you'? That may have been the case three or four years ago when this kind of thing was first happening but it certainly isn't now. Was it just me or was the more productive move not to make a double substitution, removing Thompson and one of the forwards, switching McGeady back to the left and bringing on Majic and Agathe?

We always knew that this season was to be a rebuilding exercise. Despite the recent run of wins the fact that losing Maloney and Naka caused the wheels to fall off simply underlines the need to bring in more new blood when the transfer window opens. The only bright spots were Hearts' failure to regain top spot and Rangers' continued plunge, although that game suggested that we will have to be back on song when Hibs come calling in a fortnight.