Rebuild the fortress

Strangely Celtic’s record so far is 100% home and away, two defeats out of two at home and two wins on the road!

Last week at Aberdeen they put down the domestic marker with a 45 minute display that no SPL side could live with. After the break things got a bit slack but it’s unlikely that Massimo Donati will be centre half when the serious games come around.

The win at Pittodrie should have drawn a line under last season’s miserable away form, it was more than a win, it was the rediscovery that if you go out and attack teams with pace and determination there isn’t much to be fearful.

Today St Johnstone visit Celtic Park. Last season’s away form was painful, the home form and results weren’t much better.

Four games against Hearts and Rangers failed to produce a single win while two goal leads were squandered against Aberdeen, Hibs and Dundee United.

That form may have made life more exciting for mythical neutrals but the home highlight of last season was a 7-0 win over St Mirren when the team really let rip.

Unfortunately the following week we managed to lose 1-0 to the Buddies with barely a shot on target for our efforts.

All that is in the past, at Aberdeen we had a fresh start with a first half that had even the hardest to please of supporters impressed.

There is no room for slacking today against St Johnstone, the team can’t be feeling sorry for themselves after the Arsenal match or allow their thoughts to drift to the Emirates Stadium on Wednesday.

Again today Shaun Maloney and Aiden McGeady will be vital, they are now wingers rather than midfielders, wingers with licence and the belief of their manager that they have the intelligence to adapt their play as the game develops.

At the back it’s great to see Artur Boruc back towards his best, there were plenty of howlers last season, some punished some not.

A reliable goalkeeper is essential to any team, seeing Artur concentrated and secure, and capable of brilliance when required, spreads confidence throughout the rest of the team.

St Johnstone promise to be more than decent, Derek McInnes and Tony Docherty have build a good squad that should be capable of repeating Hamilton’s efforts last season and surviving in the SPL.

They were involved in a great game last week with Motherwell but if Celtic start the game in top gear, as they did at Aberdeen, then the visitors will find out that there’s a bigger gulf between Celtic and Motherwell than there is between the First Division and the SPL.

The defeat from Arsenal was disappointing, we all expected more, maybe not a win but some chances, some pressure and some hope for the return match.

It looks like the Champions League is over for the season, a convincing win today against St Johnstone will go some way towards ensuring that the title is on it’s way back to Celtic Park and that the excitement of Champions League qualifiers is absent from the start of next season.

A strong winning performance today will send out the right message to follow on from the Aberdeen result. Last season most teams could come to Celtic Park quite confident that they could contain Celtic and be hopeful of taking a point.

Rebuilding the home form, restoring confidence amongst the players and expectations with the supporters should make the new season much more enjoyable… and successful.