Joe Hart enjoyed the mixture of relief and satisfaction that came with Celtic’s win over Aberdeen last night.
The match looked like following a familiar script when goals from Jota and Matt O’Riley put Celtic 2-0 in front after 20 minutes. When Jota had another goal mysteriously disallowed it wasn’t too big a concern with another expected soon after.
A seven minute spell early in the second half could have a major bearing in this season’s title race.
Firstly Hart lost his first two SPFL goals of 2022 when Chistian Ramirez and Lewis Ferguson levelled the score, before the significance of that could sink in Jota restored Celtic’s lead while Scott Brown led the home protests that Liel Abada was offside, or something.
After that Celtic endured a long, nervy half hour to hang on to full points. The control that they had demonstrated in their two previous matches had gone as they scratched out another win, the previously resolute defence suddenly looked vulnerable.
When the final whistle blew it was a relief, six SPFL wins out of six to start 2022 had put Celtic one point clear at the top of the table with Hart sharing his delight with the away support- and 1.4m Instagram followers.
