I watched Celtic beat Falkirk and noted hero's band-aid role, a rare sight and three clear flops

Daizen Maeda scored twice and assisted Kieran Tierney for Celtic’s goals, while Kyrell Wilson netted an excellent strike on 70 minutes to bring the Bairns back into it.

Mark Atkinson was at Celtic Park to cover proceedings for The Scotsman and he picks out some of the main talking points:

Celtic still need a No 9

Maeda rightly grabbed the headlines and the adulation for his exploits against Falkirk, but don’t let his two goals necessarily fool you into thinking Celtic have solved their No 9 issues.

The Japanese forward’s first goal was down to him pressing a dilly-dallying Keelan Adams rather than any conventional striking play. And his second, towards the end of the match, arrived when he was playing wide left - his best position.

Maeda’s endless energy levels are effective as a striker, but his link-up play, positioning and composure in front of goal aren’t at the level required of a bona-fide Celtic No 9. His miss right at the end, when he skewed wide from dead inside the penalty box, was an example of this.

Manager Martin O’Neill is more than likely to persist with Maeda as his main striker, even if he is more threatening from the flanks. That is because the other options remain inferior. Kelechi Iheanacho’s fitness clearly isn’t up to scratch, and it was telling that winter signings Junior Adamu and Tomas Cvancara weren’t even on the bench.

Whether they have a part to play in the remaining games remains to be seen. Maeda is getting close to his peak prowess after an indifferent season, but he is a band-aid over an problem position that may or may not catch Celtic out.

Winter recruits go missing

As mentioned above, Adamu and Cvancara weren’t even in the matchday squad for this match. Their fellow winter transfer signings Joel Mvuka and Benjamin Arthur weren’t present either.

What a damning indictment on Celtic’s business at the start of the year. Centre-half Arthur is understood to be carrying a knock, so his absence can be explained there. But the other three - all forward-thinking players - were brought in to alleviate grave concerns in attack and are now unable to even worry the bench.

A front-three of James Forrest, Yang Hyun-jun and Maeda worked hard, but there wasn’t an enormous amount of sparkle. Sebastian Tounekti came off the bench and set up the third goal. He clearly has talent but doesn’t string it together often enough.

O’Neill, however, is relying on these players because it is clear Adamu, Cvancara and Mvuka just aren’t cutting it for the manager.

The return of a popular player

When Alistair Johnston came on with the score at 2-1, the Celtic fans celebrated his arrival as if a goal had been scored.

The Canadian right-back had not been seen since October 23 when aggravated a hamstring issue against Sturm Graz. It has been a long road to recovery and as one of Celtic’s most popular and influential players, his return made an impact.

Celtic needed calm and experience at that moment in the game. Falkirk were pressing for a leveller and Anthony Ralston, who started the game, was given a rough ride down that flank.

Johnston may not be fit enough to start against Hibs next weekend, but O’Neill may have an eye on the Old Firm clash against Rangers on May 10. He is a player who can make a difference.

McGregor wrapped in cotton wool

For the third game in a row, Celtic captain Callum McGregor came off before the business end of a match.

This is very unusual for McGregor, who is a manager’s lieutenant and the sort of presence you want on the pitch when trying to see out a win.

McGregor has been suffering from calf and Achilles complaints this season and O’Neill is clearly trying to nurse his skipper through the rest of the season. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain - another experienced player - came on for him and the manager was fulsome in his praise afterwards of how the former Arsenal and Liverpool man fared.

Celtic are not as dominant as they once were in midfield. McGregor’s levels appear to have dipped, but injury would clearly be a mitigating factor. He remains the heartbeat of the team and O’Neill knows how much he needs him. Taking him off can’t be an easy decision in a title race.

What next for Falkirk?

It’s been a tough few weeks for the Bairns. They crashed out of the Scottish Cup semi-finals against Dunfermline Athletic last weekend and lost 6-3 to Rangers and 3-1 to Celtic either side of that.

Nevertheless, Falkirk played well against Celtic. They created chances, showed bravery on the ball, but were masters of their own downfall with individual errors in the first half.

Four games remain for Falkirk, starting next weekend at home to Motherwell. Manager John McGlynn set out what he wants to see before the end of the season.

“It's depends on results,” said McGlynn. “If Hibs win [against Hearts], that gap becomes eight - which is quite a difficult task to try and then get European football. The task is obviously to try and catch Hibs and try and get above Hibs. We've got Hibs coming to the Falkirk Stadium in a couple of games. We've got Motherwell next weekend. And I know that Motherwell will be well up for it because I think we've probably done the best against Motherwell in the league.

“If you look across the results that they've had, I think we've probably done the best against them. So I know quite naturally that they will be wanting to try and get one over on us. But if we can go and win that game and put some pressure on Hibs, then that outside chance of a European place is still there. And of course there's a lot of ifs and buts and maybes still to go with that. But that's what we have to go for.

“We've shown great mentality today. We've shown that we're not going to just throw the towel in. And we need to learn from games like this. We're coming back here to Celtic in the top six. I'm absolutely delighted to say that. We've got to learn from every time we come here. And Ibrox and all the ten castles and wherever else. So it's still a huge learning curve for all of these players. And that development is really, really important.”