Painful. Embarrassing. Predictable.

Yesterday’s performance summed up the worst season in a long time for Celtic fans. At times yesterday, you’d think that Celtic were playing Barcelona with how deep they sat and invited pressure onto them. It was embarrassing, to say the least, but it was expected given the way the Hoops have played in “big games” this season.

A strange old affair ended when Tom Rogic’s penalty was blazed over, but if it wasn’t for his strike then it would have ended a lot sooner. What was surprising to a lot of Celtic fans was the performance when the score was level and when we were losing. Up until Rangers had got their goal, Celtic offered very little in the way of chances created, but it all changed when they were losing.

Having gone a goal down in the first half and the first period of extra time, Celtic managed to get a foothold in the tie, for all of five minutes. They bombarded Rangers at the start of the second half and were piling on the pressure and they got their rewards with a great header from Erik Sviatchenko. Then you would expect Celtic to kick on to try and score another, but instead, they elected to sit back allowing the opposition to dictate play again.

I don’t know if it occurred to anyone in the backroom team but when Celtic pressurised the Rangers side, they were better and looked far more threatening as opposed to playing on the break. With little pace throughout the side, playing on the counter-attack and sitting back, it didn’t work during the 120 minutes.

Out with the tactical decisions, the thing which annoyed most Celtic fans was the personnel who played yesterday. To think that only a small handful of players got pass marks for a game like yesterday is truly embarrassing. Every single one of those players should have been fighting for every ball, kick, tackle. Instead, they looked soft and the opposition took advantage of this.

Familiar story, isn’t it? Malmo, Ross County, Inverness, Maribor, Aberdeen, Molde, yesterday…the list goes on and on. It’s a sad sight because we as fans love the club and will feel the pain after yesterday’s loss.

The truth is that yesterday’s loss isn’t the first, it’s been happening for the last few seasons. Celtic have failed to turn up again! The fans have always backed the club, but with more and more disappointing results and poor play, you wonder how many will be supporting the side on Sunday when they play Ross County.

With a league title still to win, many will think that the Celtic board have reached a decision with next season plans to introduce a new man in charge and get rid of the dead weight within the club. As much a Ronny Deila is a decent guy, it simply hasn’t worked out for the club nor for the fans. Some even think those on the board standing over and watching this decline should follow Deila out of the club.

It’s time that Celtic changed for next season and start afresh with a new man at the helm and some new blood to excite fans. However if everything was to stay the same, then a lot of people will expect the same results as this season and that simply isn’t good enough for the fans.

Jock Stein once said “Celtic jerseys are not for second best. They don’t shrink to fit inferior players.” Given who the club have recruited in the past few seasons, plenty of players have somehow fitted into the green and white jersey.