Celtic continued their excellent start to 2020 with another victory last weekend, with League One outfit Clyde their latest victims of the New Year.
Goals from Olivier Ntcham, Scott Brown and Vakoun Bayo gave the Hoops their seventh straight win since the return from the winter break, as Storm Ciara didn’t stop Celtic from breezing past their opponents at Broadwood.
Ntcham opened the scoring on his birthday to celebrate his seventh consecutive start in the side with a goal (Transfermarkt), with a powerful effort from the edge of the area, before Broony added a second prior to half-time.
Bayo was introduced as a second-half substitute and he made it three in the dying embers of the game to wrap up the victory and set up a quarter-final tie with St Johnstone; the Hoops’ third consecutive away fixture of the competition.
And following the victory, I’ve taken a look at four players who made a particularly positive impression during the win against Clyde.
Mohamed Elyounoussi
Elyounoussi produced a solid performance on his return from injury, with Chris Sutton singling out his return as a positive for Celtic to take away from the result.
A breeze for Celtic in tough conditions 3-0… good to see Elyounoussi back…
The winger got a solid 85 minutes of action under his belt prior to being replaced by Marian Shved.
Vakoun Bayo
The striker is likely to have felt the pressure after coming on in the 75th minute, having seen Patryk Klimala start ahead of him, and given how Odsonne Edouard and Leigh Griffiths have started this year in such fine form.
And though he missed two good chances prior to the goal, he responded in the best possible way with a well-taken finish late on, after producing a fine piece of movement in the box to create some space.
Scott Bain
A thumb injury combined with Fraser Forster’s form has seen Bain sidelined for the majority of this season, but the 28-year-old kept a clean sheet on his first start in nearly six months, and his inclusion in the side suggests he could well be Celtic’s number two ahead of Craig Gordon, who didn’t even make the matchday squad.
Olivier Ntcham
The Frenchman scored on his birthday and he appears to be benefitting from a consistent run of starts, with this his seventh in succession (Transfermarkt), as he was arguably the best player on the pitch.
Long may that continue as I think he’s one of Celtic’s classiest players to watch.