Adam Idah didn’t take long to provide Hugh Keevins with another custard pie for his infantile predictions, playing to the gallery of Daily Record readers.
Last week’s contribution to the 1-0 win over YB Bern drew the ire of Keevins who felt that celebrating and claiming the goal was the most newsworthy aspect of a Scottish club progressing further in European competition.
Last night Keevins sat in front of the telly in search of more content, openly hoping for a repeat of the earlier defeat from Borussia Dortmund rather than drawing on the clean sheets that followed away to Atalanta and Dinamo Zagreb.
And Idah? Two months without a goal scored in the SPFL and he was on his own away to Aston Villa, an EPL club in the Champions League wouldn’t give the Celtic misfit a sniff of goal.
Idah doesn’t have the movement of Kyogo but there are aspects of the Irishman’s game that the new Rennes striker doesn’t get near. He does have a presence, a physical threat and is no slouch with his back to goal and linking up with team-mates.
Like genuine strikers he comes alive across the goalmouth, stick the ball in there and he’ll pop it into the net regardless if the opposition goalkeeper has a World Cup winners medal in his collection.
Idah did miss a bad chance away to Dundee, Celtic did drop points and overall he was ineffective. It happens to the best of them.
One of Keevins’ heroes is Ally McCoist, he managed two Champions League goals in his entire career, Idah popped in two before half-time last night with three in total from this season so far.
Turning up his scorn and contempt, at the weekend Keevins told Daily Record readers:
When Celtic’s Champions League game against Young Boys was over on Wednesday night, I was tempted to call my old friend Fraser Wishart, the head of PFA Scotland, to ask him if a new category was to be introduced at the Players Union’s annual awards ceremony.
I thought it could be called the Brass Neck of the Season trophy and I wanted to nominate Celtic’s Adam Idah to be the first recipient of the prize. Adam was actually the third last person to touch the ball that created Celtic’s thoroughly merited victory against the Swiss, but he ran off to take the acclaim of the crowd with no visible sign of a blush anywhere to be seen.
Idah isn’t the only person that carries out his job without blushing, sharing his pain at the goal Keevins added:
Meanwhile, the stadium announcer was testing the crowd’s credulity by announcing the Irishman’s name as the owner of the goal his own mother wouldn’t have credited him with scoring.
After showering praise on the landmark signing of the manager that was deemed as Absolutely Not Good Enough before he lifted five trophies out of six, Keevins decided to go step up the stupid predictions:
The sale of Kyogo Furuhashi to Rennes creates a vacancy in the striking department that Idah does not fill as yet, and the fans are watching with interest. I’ll take it all back next weekend if the Irishman scores against Aston Villa on Wednesday, but I suspect that away game will be more about Celtic’s defensive resilience than anything else. And the need to avoid a defeat of Borussia Dortmund proportions.
There was no repeat of the Dortmund scoreline, nothing near it with Celtic in contention right up till the 90th minute.
Celtic were rocked, could have crumbled but gathered themselves together with two goals in three minutes from Idah before half-time turning around the complexion of the match.
Idah was signed exactly a year ago, initially on loan from Norwich City. If Rodgers can come up with similar quality between now and 11pm on Monday Celtic fans will be pleased as the anguish and pain continues for the Daily Record columnist.
Next month Celtic are preparing for matches 9 and 10 in this season’s Champions League with Idah at the centre of their plans.
His career is on the up, he has achieved an incredible amount in his first year at Celtic, the worrying news for Keevins and his ilk is that there is every chance that the hoops striker and manager are only going to go from strength to strength.
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