Celtic fan mutiny amid 'sack the board' chants as one player hits new low and key injury concern

A 7,000 mile round trip to Almaty, 250 miles from the Chinese border, awaits. It has come down to a one-match shootout for a place in the league stage after this goalless draw amid mutinous scenes at Parkhead. Like Rangers, Celtic might wonder if they are even ready for such elite company.

The outcome rendered redundant Brendan Rodgers’ noble attempts to skirt around the issue of Celtic’s transfer policy. This spoke very bluntly indeed about the need for reinforcements, and not just because of the terrible sight of Alistair Johnston falling to the turf clutching the back of his leg ten minutes before half time. The Canadian right-back seems likely to be out for the near future. Anthony Ralston took his place and looks set for an extended period of action.

Flashbacks to bad old days

Also loud and clear was the unhappiness of the Celtic fans. “Sack the board, sack the board!” rang out from the 67th minute onwards as the home team struggled to make any kind of real inroads on a team who are supposed to be travel weary after recent trips to Finland and Slovakia as well as Glasgow. It must have felt like the bad old days for Celtic great Paul McStay, who sat alongside Roy Aitken in the main stand. Rebelling against the board seemed like a weekly occurrence back then, when, despite his cultured presence in midfield, Celtic seemed constantly in crisis.

Peter Lawwell, the chairman, got it in the neck here, as did chief executive Michael Nicholson. While Rodgers has been cautious with what he’s said when asked specifically about transfers, he has made pointed observations. His comments about understudy left-back Hayato Inamura not yet being up to standard to be included in the European squad left few in doubt about his unhappiness about his resources, particularly when so much money is perceived to be just sitting in the bank. It’s there, waiting to be spent.

It’s not a case of the board praying their ticket comes up in the Paradise Windfall, which, incidentally, was drawn at half-time here by Brian McClair. “One of Celtic’s finest ever goalscorers!” was how he was introduced. What they would do for a McClair now.

Number 9s catch eye - for different reasons

Adam Idah’s troubles at Celtic dipped to a new low here when he was replaced at half-time by Hyunjun Yang after a fairly anonymous performance, although there were some mitigating factors. His team failing to get the ball to him was one. Nevertheless, it was hard to avoid noting that Yang did more in his first 60 seconds on the pitch than Idah had managed in the entire half. Yang almost immediately set up James Forrest, whose shot was tipped onto the post by goalkeeper Alexandr Zarutskiy. With Daizen Maeda now playing through the middle, it was already much better from Celtic after a curiously listless opening 45 minutes.

Never mind Idah, it was the other No. 9 who caught the eye – and not just because of his red boots. While much was made of Rangers manager Russell Martin’s decision to throw in a player who had just turned 19 for his debut the previous evening against Club Brugge, Kairat manager Rafael Urazabakhtin thought nothing about fielding Dastan Satpayev, who turned 17 earlier this month.

And why would he need to deliberate playing him when the player has already sealed a move to Chelsea next summer. Enjoy him while you can. Celtic would prefer for him to join Chelsea in this transfer window, ideally before the teams meet again next week.

He was a constant thorn in Celtic’s side and seemed to pop up everywhere. He showed Kieran Tierney a clean pair of heels before crossing in the run-up to skipper Aleksandr Martynovich bundling in after ten minutes. Fortunately for Celtic, the scorer had already strayed offside. Kairat had come close to opening the scoring just two minutes in when Edmilson’s header at the back post deflected off Tierney for a corner. It could well have sneaked in.

As well as Satpayev, Edmilson, their big striker, was a constant menace. The Brazilian nearly scored one of the great European goals at Parkhead after 57 minutes when he latched onto a mistake from Cameron Carter-Vickers and tried his luck from all of 40 yards. Kasper Schmeichel was happy to see the ball land on the roof of his net.

Celtic were meant to roll over the top of the visitors from Kazakhstan. However, Kairat, who are 20 games into their league season, showed they are in the groove, even if their last league game saw them throw away a two-goal lead to lose 3-2 against Yelimay Semey. They seemed doubly determined to avoid any such mishaps here. They barely allowed Celtic a sniff in the opening half and although the hosts started the second half brightly, a series of stoppages, including a particularly long one when Zarutskiy, the Kairat ‘keeper, stayed down on the turf after challenging Liam Scales at a header, helped disrupt the little momentum they managed.

The stretcher bearers came on and then they went off again. Zarutskiy looked like he might struggle on before he finally limped off. Temirian Anarbekov replaced him but even that took a while. He later needed treatment for a head knock, which contributed to the ten minutes of added time. It wasn’t enough. Celtic hadn’t tested either ‘keeper enough. Even Maeda, when put straight through in the dying moments, failed to make the groggy Anarbekov work when shooting into his midriff. All to play for, then, in Almaty. But it really shouldn’t have come to this.