It is fair to say that Celtic weren’t at their best in the recent 2-0 defeat by St Mirren. The Hoops failed to put any pressure on the Paisley side during the game, in a performance that was perhaps the worst since Ange Postecoglou became Celtic manager.

The Hoops boss made some changes to his regular starting line-up, and one of those was Anthony Ralston getting a rare start this season in place of the usual right-back in the team, Josip Juranovic.

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Ralston didn’t have the best of games offensively, no Celtic player did, but he can be satisfied with how he played in defence, which is an indication of how under the cosh Celtic were during the 90 minutes.

As shown on WhoScored.Com, Ralston contributed the most clearances for the Celtic team with 4, he also contributed the most aerials won with 6. That shows that despite how poor the Hoops were on the day, Ralston was able to prevent things from getting worse.

The question that has to be asked though, is did Ralston do enough to be in the Celtic starting line-up when the Hoops return to action on the 1st of October against Motherwell? The answer is, probably not, in an attacking sense anyway.

Unlike last season, Celtic have played few games at the start of the season, due to the club automatically qualifying for the Champions League group stages, and that has meant that the fringe players in the team have had fewer chances to show that they belong in the Hoops starting line-up.

None of the Celtic fringe players that were involved in the Hoop starting line-up against St Mirren made the most of their opportunities, and that must be a disappointment to the Celtic manager, as he would have expected better from the team that he picked to face the Paisley side.

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Even though Celtic face a hectic schedule in the next two months in the run-up to the break for the World Cup in November, there has to be a worry that as the fringe players didn’t show up against St Mirren, the Celtic boss will stick with the players that he usually picks in the games Celtic play over the next two months, and there is a chance they could be fatigued by the time the break for the World Cup comes along.

Still, it is up to the Hoops players to make the most of the chances when they come along, and none of them did that, and even though Ralston performed well at times against St Mirren, he might not have shown enough that he can replace Juranovic.