Hoops Have to Down Dees

Hoops Have to Down Dees
~~~~~~~~~~ Official TC Match Preview ~~~~~~~~~~


Paolo Bernardo scored his first Celtic goal in the 3-0 win over Dundee on Boxing Day


Celtic Park, Glasgow
Wednesday, 28 February 2024
19.45 GMT​

Celtic return home tomorrow evening, for the visit of 6th placed Dundee tomorrow, knowing that they beed another win, as they look to keep the pressure in the Premiership title race.

The Celts have struggled to find consistency since November, and this was again evident against Motherwell at the weekend. A flat first half display left them trailing 1-0 at the break, before coming to life after the interval and putting together one of the most convincing second half performances in months to claim a late 3-1 win - in no small part due to Adam Idah and Yang Hyun-Jun, both coming off the bench to make telling contributions in the fightback.

Brendan Rodgers has enjoyed considerable success against Dundee over the years, with 10 wins and a draw from 11 previous encounters. After the 2nd half performance at Fir Park at the weekend, the Celtic support will be looking for more of the same tomorrow.

A really commanding display at home will also do the fans as much as the team a world of good, considering the two most recent efforts at Parkhead have been the lacklustre 1-0 win over relegation battlers, Ross County, and the disappointing 1-1 draw with Kilmarnock, a couple of weeks ago.


Adam Idah scored twice as Celtic came back from a goal down to beat Motherwell on Sunday.

As for the visitors, it has been a season so far that probably exceeded most people's expectations, after their promotion from the Championship last summer.

Tony Docherty's side have spent most of the campaign in the top half of the table and will be looking to keep it that way, ahead of the split. Despite the 2-1 defeat by Hibs at the weekend, the Tayside club have continued to impress in their return to the top flight.

A big part of their success has been the ability to regularly score goals. In fact, outside of the Glasgow pair of Celtic and Sevco, they have scored more than any other rivals.

This contrasts with their defensive issues though, having only kept 2 clean sheets in the past 15 games since Novermber's International Break - and both of those were against Ross County.

For Celtic, it is absolutely essential that they secure another win to keep their title aspirations on track, as they trail the league leaders by 2 points going into this match and ahead of a tricky trip to Tynecastle scheduled for the weekend.​

By the Numbers​

• Celtic have been undefeated by the Dark Blues, home or away, since May 2001.

• The Bhoys have won the last 8 straight meetings between these sides - and have scored at least 3 goals in 7 of those games.

• The Dens Park side have won just one of their last 6 'Away' league games (W1 D1 L4).

• Both Celtic & Dundee have kept just a single league clean sheet since the Winter Break. As fortune would have it, both teams have only managed the feat against Ross County.

Alistair Johnston in action against Dundee during the 3-0 victory back in September

Team News

The Celts continue without Reo Hatate (calf) and there is a question over the fitness of Stwphen Welsh, who was omitted entirely from the matchday squad at the weekend and has been dealing with some hamstring tightness recently, but otherwise the manager has close to a full squad to choose from.

After their efforts from off the bench at the weekend, Adam Idah and Yang Hyun-Jun will have pressed their cases for a place in the starting XI, as will Cameron Carter-Vickers, who returned from an injury lay-off and played 30 minutes also as a 2nd half substitute.

As for the Dark Blues, they continue to be without Diego Pineda, Zach Robinson and Ryan Howley. The only real question seems to be whether Docherty will be tempted to tinker with what has been a settled side over the last couple of games.

The manager was forced to make a couple of halftime tactical substitutions against Hibs to get his side back into that game, but whether this is indicative of these changes actually now extending to being the starting lineup for this match remains to be seen.

Referee: DMatthew McDermid

The 30y.o official made his top flight debut in August 2022 and has since established himself at this level, with 23 Premiership games to his name - including 12 this season.

Celtic's Overall Record
M:3 W:2 D:1 L:0

VAR: Euan Anderson​

~~~~ Head to Head ~~~~

Overall
P: 256 W: 153 D: 60 L: 43​

Last 5 Meetings
W W W W W

~~~~ 2023/24 Form ~~~~ ​

Overall
W D W W D ~ L W W L L

SPFL
W D W D W ~ L W W L L​