As soon as a mini-revival takes place at Celtic, it is seemingly halted in disastrous consequences.
Truth be told, their form of late has been pretty good. Neil Lennon had engineered five straight wins in the SPFL but after Rangers’ 4-1 victory on Saturday, it meant the Gers needed just seven points to secure the title.
Their bid was then made even easier by what happened in Dingwall just hours later.
Celtic crumbled once more and in doing so, granted the league’s bottom-placed side Ross County a win. It was just their seventh of the campaign as they leapfrogged both Hamilton and Kilmarnock.
Their 1-0 loss was a shock, but the performance the Hoops put in was not. They lacked composure in front of goal and it was unsurprising they failed to score.
One man typified that in horrendous fashion; Ryan Christie.
The winger has been incredibly poor of late and has scored only once in his last 23 outings. On Sunday, he came no closer. In fact, if you found a football in your back garden on Monday morning, it’s likely it would have came from the boot of Christie.
He looked desperate and rash in front of goal, spurning regular opportunities to find the net. The worst came after 36 minutes. Odsonne Edouard got down the left channel and laid the ball on a plate for Christie. It was on his favoured foot and from just a matter of yards out, it looked easier to score. Instead, he blazed the ball not only over the bar but also out of the stadium.
It was a moment that summed up the match and indeed his season to date. It lacked conviction and was devoid of the quality that saw both Leeds and Arsenal linked with his services in recent months.
In total, Christie fired five shots off target during his time on the pitch but things didn’t get better when he tried to carve out openings for his teammates either as he lost possession 21 times.
That happened to be the fourth-worst tally by any Celtic player – something that emphasises their diabolical evening at Victoria Park. Christie was also weak in the challenge, winning just 14.2% of the defensive duels he competed in.
Christie has been a problem for months now and this type of performance won’t have made his life any easier at Parkhead. Last term, he was regularly Neil Lennon’s go-to man, scoring 20 times in all competitions.
This season, however, he has been a shadow of his former self. Celtic should definitely cash in if interest continues next summer.