Ronny Deila, the Celtic manager, last night conceded his side will blow the league title if they continue playing as poorly as they did in an abject 0-0 draw with Dundee. The champions lead the Ladbrokes SPFL Premiership by only four points having won just two of their last five league games.
Celtic Park jeered the result loudly as Aberdeen reduced Celtic’s lead to four points with ten games remaining. The top two have repeatedly stumbled and spilled points but Aberdeen won 1-0 at Tannadice last night and the Celtic support was infuriated by their team’s awful passing and creativity, lack of urgency and muddled, panicky tactics. Deila is under renewed pressure after another night which helped add uncertainty to a one-horse race. In their last handful of league games Celtic have lost to Aberdeen and drawn with Hamilton Academical and Dundee.
They were 1/40 to win a fifth consecutive league title at the start of the season but Deila conceded they will lose it to Aberdeen if they keep playing so poorly. “Yes, yes, that’s for sure. We have to be at a totally different level. But we also know how good we can be when we are at our best, so it is about details and getting the good feeling back again.
“I am very, very disappointed. The whole team is very disappointed and the whole performance wasn’t good enough. There have been a few games in a row when we have not shown our best. Today it feels like we were always one metre behind. It wasn’t like it was one player worse than others. It’s about energy. We need to get confidence and energy into the team. That’s my task and what we are going to work on. I’m angry; of course I am angry. I’ll say it again: this is about us. We are in front and we need to perform to get our points. If we do that, we will win the league. It’s as simple and difficult as that.”
Celtic captain Scott Brown said supporters had been entitled to boo the team off the pitch. “We’re devastated. We’ve not played as well as we’d have liked or as well as we could have. We’ve let everyone down. It’s not good enough.” Asked about the booing, Brown said: “We deserved that. That’s been a few games now when we’ve let ourselves down and it’s not been good enough football, it’s been long balls and we’ve not done well and not created a lot of chances. I understand the fans’ frustrations.”
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Dundee had kept key men Kane Hemmings, Gary Harkins and Greg Stewart on the bench until the closing stages, mindful of their William Hill Scottish Cup quarter-final at Rangers on Saturday. “It was a great team performance,” he said. “The gameplan worked and we could have nicked it at the end. We were the better team in the second half. I made changes with Saturday in mind but I have a lot of trust in my players. Did it give me encouragement? I always had it. We deserve the credit for the result.”