Celtic 2-0 Ross County: Griffiths on target in comfortable win

Leigh Griffiths scored in his first Scottish Premiership start of the season when Celtic won over Ross County.

Celtic remains 16 points behind Rangers, having played three fewer games.

The county at the base of the table fought diligently under new manager John Hughes, but rarely threatened.

The clamor to eliminate Neil Lennon came to a head after a League Cup loss at home to County last month, but the pressure on the Celtic manager has eased in recent weeks.

The spectacular success of Sunday’s Scottish Cup completed a four-fold triple trophy and the champions are now five games unbeaten in all competitions.

There were also more signs of improvement in this one-sided competition. Griffiths and Odsonne Edouard were paired up front, and the Frenchman was given a freer role to fetch the ball.

Both were encouraged, with Edouard shooting wide in the first half and Griffiths wasting two good chances shortly before he scored his goal.

That came by the time he was given time to bring home a delivery from Christie’s right.

Griffiths, who scored as a substitute in extra time and scored a penalty in the penalty shootout against Heart, had earlier delayed a good shot opportunity, while Ross Laidlaw saved after a terrible backward pass from Iain Vigurs that he gave to Griffiths one on one.

The breakthrough came after 24 minutes, when Jeremie Frimpong turned Josh Reid around before Turnbull made his cut from the baseline.

County spent most of the time defending its own penalty area, but had a good look at the goal early on when Ross Stewart launched a deflected header.

The visitors lost their top scorer to injury before the break and offered little in attack thereafter.

Man of the Match – David Turnbull

What did we learn?

Griffiths and Edouard have shown their prowess as partners before and while the former was undoubtedly rusty, he had a valuable 80 minutes under his belt and scored his fifth goal of the season with ease.

With County sitting deep, Turnbull and Christie were busy as the champs scrambled for holes in a packed defense, though some of the game from behind remains a bit heavy.

The home defense rarely struggled, but a clean sheet will be welcome and there was no sign of the panic witnessed at Hampden on Sunday and in several other outings this season.

What did they say?

Celtic coach Neil Lennon: “It’s another step in the right direction. I thought we should have won the game by a lot more, but I’m very satisfied with the freshness that the guys who arrived today gave the team. It was a good enthusiasm for us.”

John Hughes, Ross County Manager: “Our organization, the distances between the players, our willingness to get stuck and fight for the cause; I think that was evident. The disappointment is that I would like to have created more chances, put a glove on them a little bit, and I wish I had been better With the ball “.

Whats Next?

Celtic visit Hamilton Academical on Boxing Day (15:00 GMT), while Ross County plays home to St Mirren (15:00) looking to end an 11-game league winless streak.