Jackson acknowledges what we all saw yesterday – but the real litmus test comes for Celtic on Thursday night

Keith Jackson has written about Celtic’s win at Fir Park, and for once, I can’t argue with a word of what he’s seen.

Because it’s exactly what we saw ourselves.

Here is how he put it in the Daily Record:

“It was the utterly emphatic nature of this performance more than the 2-0 scoreline itself which will have done so much to reinvigorate the old fox just when he needed a shot in the arm.”

And he’s right.

The movement was better, the passing was sharper and the reluctance to turn and play the ball back to the keeper was gone.

Then there was the high press, which was relentless from the first whistle.

Twenty-five chances in one game.

Fifteen of them on target.

Yes, there was a massive improvement in Celtic’s performance yesterday, and it made the previous three games look like night and day.

Gone was the passivity, the fear of going into the opposition half and the inability to create a shot on target

Think back to what we were watching before the international break.

Players who looked scared to cross the halfway line.

A team that could pass it sideways all day long and never once test the keeper.

None of that was there at Fir Park.

It was a side playing on the front foot, with a bit of fire in its belly, and it was a joy to watch.

I’ll even go as far as to say it was the first time this season I enjoyed a Celtic game from start to finish.

Credit where it’s due, to Martin O’Neill and the players.

Having said that, you know as well as I do that one good afternoon doesn’t make a season.

Haven’t we been here before?

A win does not take the pressure off the board

Now, here’s the part Jackson was never going to write.

Yesterday did nothing other than show us some green shoots, and that we may be moving in the right direction.

That’s it.

It does not mean the problems at Celtic have gone away.

And it does not take one ounce of pressure off the people who put us in this position in the first place.

Make no mistake, the board will love a result like this one.

Celtic winning games is what makes life easy for them, because it takes the spotlight off them.

Win a few on the bounce and the noise dies down, the banners come down and the questions stop being asked.

That’s exactly how they like it.

Dermot Desmond can stay on the golf course, and Silent Mike can stay silent.

Because as long as the results are coming, nobody is asking them to explain a single thing.

If we mount a serious run between now and January – and that’s still a big if – they will do nothing in the window

We all know this.

We’ve seen it before, time and time again.

A decent run of form arrives, and suddenly there’s no urgency to strengthen the squad.

Why spend money you don’t have to spend?

Except we do have to spend it, because this is a squad that needs major additions in January, and anybody who watched the last month can see that.

Winning football matches cannot be a cover up for their inadequacies any more.

I’m not prepared to let them use it as one.

Winning at Fir Park is not an achievement, it is the minimum you should expect.

Winning domestically for a club of our size is a prerequisite.

It’s the bare minimum, and it always has been.

Building our club into the best it can possibly be is the board’s job.

And they are failing miserably in that regard.

One win against a poor Motherwell side changes nothing

Let’s keep this in perspective, shall we?

Motherwell were poor, and Jackson himself said as much, with their keeper doing most of the work to stop it being a hiding.

Don’t take my word for it, here’s what he said about the bigger picture:

“One win at Motherwell does not make up for the paucity of his side’s previous three performances.”

Three performances, I’ll add, against the Ibrox side and a Europa League collapse against Ferencvaros.

Which is why Thursday night matters so much.

Benfica away in Lisbon is a different animal altogether, and there will be no hiding place if the passivity returns.

That’s the real litmus test, and it’s the one that will tell us whether Fir Park was a turning point or just a nice afternoon out.

Can this side do it against a team with real quality?

Or will we see the same old fear creep back in?

I genuinely don’t know, and anybody who tells you they do is kidding you on.

Then Hearts arrive in the league, so there’ll be no time to catch our breath.

It was good to be back to winning ways, and I’m not going to pretend otherwise.

But there is a long, long way to go yet.

And the board still has a LOT of questions to answer.

Keep your eyes on the board…

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