{"id":41644,"date":"2025-08-03T20:25:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-03T20:25:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/41644\/"},"modified":"2025-08-03T20:25:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-03T20:25:10","slug":"celtic-late-show-underlines-brendan-rodgers-point-as-fans-climb-the-walls-five-talking-points","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/41644\/","title":{"rendered":"Celtic late show underlines Brendan Rodgers’ point as fans climb the walls \u2013 five talking points"},"content":{"rendered":"

Luke McCowan’s late winner got champions out of jail but bizarre transfer situation only highlighted by opening game slog<\/p>\n

18:39, 03 Aug 2025Updated 18:45, 03 Aug 2025<\/p>\n

Celtic’s Luke McCowan celebrates scoring to make it 1-0<\/p>\n

The Maestro unfurled the Premiership flag but it took a late switch of Luke McCowan\u2019s wand of a left peg to make sure Celtic<\/a> didn\u2019t hit a bum note on day one.<\/p>\n

Club legend Paul McStay started the party before kick-off but St Mirren<\/a> threatened to silence Celtic Park until the sub struck with just a couple of minutes to go.<\/p>\n

Stephen Robinson\u2019s men were at their stubborn best and almost managed a repeat of their draw on Trophy Day back in May.<\/p>\n

But \u2013 like that day \u2013 another late, late show from Celts left the Paisley side gutted<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It was more relief for Celts, who started brightly but quickly went flat after missing some big chances in the opening period.<\/p>\n

Adam Idah was guilty of a couple while Benjamin Nygren and Reo Hatate also hit the woodwork either side of half-time \u2013 with Saints keeper Shamal George putting up the shutters in between.<\/p>\n

Callum McGregor thought he\u2019d found the breakthrough with 20 minutes to go, only for VAR to scrub it after clocking a nick of his arm in the build up.<\/p>\n

And there were times when boss Brendan Rodgers<\/a>\u2019 warnings over a lack of blockbuster signings this summer looked like being on the money.<\/p>\n

The Hoops squad looked stretched by the end with Kierany Tierney limping off and Rodgers lacking attacking options on the bench.<\/p>\n

But super sub McCowan<\/a> made a huge impact \u2013 keeping his cool to twist and turn before drilling his deflected drive into the bottom corner to ensure a winning start.<\/p>\n

Here’s five talking points from Flag Day.<\/p>\n

Sign of the times<\/p>\n

Rodgers has ben practically begging for new faces \u2013 and this only underlined it in bold.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not even up for debate, the Hoops are weaker than they were at the end of last season \u2013 and they were weaker then than they weren\u2019t in January.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a bizarre state of affairs to be kicking off the season having not replaced match winners like Kyogo, Nicholas Kuhn and Jota.<\/p>\n

Adah Idah is still struggling and Yang just isn\u2019t up to the task as a starter.<\/p>\n

The starting line up was strong enough but the lack of action in the window left Rodgers with few options to mix it up when things got a but flat.<\/p>\n

They got the job done eventually but no wonder fans are climbing the wall along with their manager \u2013 it\u2019s a bizarre state to be in for a club with piles of cash in the bank.<\/p>\n

KT right at home<\/p>\n

Celtic fans gave their returning hero a heck of a welcome. They saw the quality \u2013 and the concerns that come with the defender.<\/p>\n

Tierney was outstanding for an hour, rampaging up the left flank and firing over countless crosses that really should have been stuck away.<\/p>\n

He was his usual all-action self, steaming into tackles and driving his team up the pitch.<\/p>\n

Celtic’s Kieran Tierney was subbed after an hour at Celtic Park<\/p>\n

But there are worries about hit durability these days and those fears weren\u2019t helped when Tierney limped off with 25 minutes to go.<\/p>\n

Rodgers will be hoping it\u2019s nothing too serious but with big games coming thick and fast, getting the full back fully fit \u2013 and keeping him fit \u2013 will be absolutely vital, along with signing quality back up.<\/p>\n

JSP incoming<\/p>\n

Celtic fans are screaming out for signings \u2013 as is Brendan Rodgers \u2013 but at least one is imminent with Jahmai Simpson-Pusey spotted in the crowd wearing a Celtic tracksuit.<\/p>\n

The Man City defender\u2019s season long loan deal has been sorted and he\u2019ll be confirmed in the coming days.<\/p>\n

Celtic signing target Jahmai Simpson-Pusey (centre right) watches on<\/p>\n

It will be interesting to see the plan for the 19-year-old though. Simpson-Pusey won\u2019t be in town to sit on the bench but will he be back up for Cameron Carter-Vickers or partner him?<\/p>\n

It was harsh on Auston Trusty being among the subs after impressing in pre-season, but Scales has rarely let the side down.<\/p>\n

Celts look light in other areas but at least they are strong at the centre of defence.<\/p>\n

Fitting tributes<\/p>\n

There was sad news over the summer for Celtic fans with the loss of two club legends who were part of the greatest day in the club\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

Supporters got their chance to pay tribute to Lisbon Lion John Clark and John Fallon, who was the sole sub that famous day in Portugal.<\/p>\n

Hoops fans unfurled a huge tifo featuring Clark in his heyday in an emotional moment before kick-off. There was another one for Fallon before the second period and, regardless of what else is going on, there are few clubs in the game who honour their greats like Celtic.<\/p>\n

Saints alive<\/p>\n

Stephen Robinson pulls more rabbits out of hats than Paul Daniels in his prime and the Saints boss is looking for more magic again this term.<\/p>\n

The Northern Irishman has lost key men such as Richard Taylor, Caolon Boyd-Munce, Greg Kiltie and Owen Oseni, yet he constantly manages to plug the holes with similar profiles, with keeper Shamal George a shrew capture.<\/p>\n

New boys Jayden Richardson and Richard King slotted in against Celts and while they had hard shifts, they looked like typical Buddies.<\/p>\n

It looked every inch a Robbo team again \u2013 organised, well drilled, working their socks off to keep Celts at bay while posing the odd problem.<\/p>\n

It can\u2019t be easy for Robinson to keep producing season after season and of course there will be some bumpy moments, but you wouldn\u2019t bet against the Paisley men being defying the odds to be in the top six mix again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Luke McCowan’s late winner got champions out of jail but bizarre transfer situation only highlighted by opening game…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":41645,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[23924,7336,23926,2817,59,20100,18669,23925,8058,101,23922,23923,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-41644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-adam-idah","tag-brendan-rodgers","tag-callum-mcgregor","tag-celtic-fc","tag-gb","tag-jahmai-simpson-pusey","tag-kieran-tierney","tag-luke-mccowan","tag-scottish-premiership","tag-sports","tag-st-mirren-fc","tag-stephen-robinson","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41644"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41644\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}