John Hartson believes that Celtic took St Mirren “too lightly” and blamed Olivier Ntcham for “losing it” in the goalless draw against St Mirren on Friday night at the Simple Digital Arena.
Rodgers’ men were unable to find a way through their resilient opponents in this clash, but this was not helped by the fact that Olivier Ntcham was sent off in the 37th minute – which meant that the Hoops had to play the majority of the match with just ten men on the pitch.
The BT Sport pundit criticised the way that Celtic approached St Mirren in the fixture on Twitter, accusing them of not taking them seriously enough.
Celtic took St Mirren too lightly.. their playing the champions it’s on tv and they have a new manager. Incham lost his head, saying that Celtic could still have nicked with 10 men.. dust ourselves down let’s get off to a flyer on Thursday ?
— John Hartson (@JohnHartson10) September 14, 2018
OPINION
Hartson is right – Celtic did take St Mirren too lightly in this clash. Many would have thought that they would be full of confidence on the back of a 1-0 win over Rangers before the international break, but in this match, it looked like they did not respect their opponents. St Mirren may have been in 11th place before this match, but that does not give the Hoops an excuse to not take them seriously. It is often against these smaller teams that the big boys can slip up, which has been demonstrated by Celtic here. In the end, this complacency will cost them vital points in the Scottish Premier League, something which they obviously do not want to be doing with Rangers on their backs. However, as Hartson said, the team now need dust themselves down in time for their Europa League clash with Rosenborg on Thursday – but they will seriously need to improve on this game to stand any chance of getting a positive result.