Scottish Football Weekend: Fan Reactions to Celtic’s Draw, Aberdeen’s Decline, and Hearts’ Victory

The latest weekend of Scottish football saw league leaders Celtic experience an unusual setback, while Rangers secured a narrow victory to reduce the points difference. Aberdeen’s poor run of form persisted, causing them to drop to third place. Elsewhere, Heart of Midlothian moved out of last position, with St Johnstone taking their place at the foot of the table. Hibernian and St Mirren both recorded wins, and a match at Fir Park concluded in a draw. Following these results, supporters shared their perspectives. Following Sunday’s goalless draw against Dundee United, some Celtic supporters expressed dissatisfaction, even though Brendan Rodgers’ team maintains a nine-point lead. One fan commented, “‘Celtic lacked finesse when it really counted'”. Al: For what the squad cost, it is a disgrace that we could not break down a dogged, but limited, opposition. The display in the League Cup final was below par, but the performance yesterday really was woeful.Paul: Celtic missed their big guns against a very resilient Dundee United side to grind out an inauspicious draw. Several players like Hyunjun Yang, Luis Palma, Anthony Ralston, Luke McCowan and Stephen Welsh showed their frailties and are not worthy of a first-team place, with Kyogo Furuhashi’s miss testimony of his extremely poor form this season.Tommy: Really poor, laborious, side-to-side tippy-tappy Rodgersball. Hats off to Jim Goodwin and his well-thought-out tactics in the knowledge Brendan Rodgers is incapable of changing his style of play.Malcolm: With the Celtic line-up against Dundee United, it feels Brendan took a gamble by playing second-string players – why? We didn’t lose, but I think maybe it’s all about the January transfer window and, to be honest, we still need strengthening as we are still very vulnerable in defence.Peter: Unbeaten run continues but far from convincing display. Really need to sign a proven goalscorer in January. Like Adam Idah, but he will never make it as a regular striker for Celtic. The board needs to act quickly if we are to drive home our current domestic dominance and progress in Europe.Anon: Rodgers is becoming too arrogant. To make all those changes to the team in one game is completely criminal. He got away with it against Ross County, but making all those changes in one game is asking for trouble. Dundee United fans were encouraged by the draw against the reigning champions, a result that keeps their team in fifth position. Paul: A result that on paper should never have happened, especially when Celtic can bring £20m worth of players off the bench. Proud of the way we defended, limiting them to only a couple of clear openings. A boost going into some crucial games we should be looking to take a good points haul from.Stephen: Was it great to watch, no. But this Celtic side has battered everyone else in league and cup, so to restrict them to barely testing Jack Walton, yeah I’ll take it. A good point well earned. On to St Johnstone on Boxing Day!Ross: A change of gameplan worked perfectly. From a three to back four, everyone behind the ball when out of possession, compact shape to deny the opponents space – all worked to great effect. Proves that a “horses for courses” tactical philosophy might just keep United looking towards a top-six finish rather than the dreaded relegation dogfight.Anon: Vicko Sevelj is developing into an outstanding defensive midfielder. The cover he provided for the centre-back pairing of Declan Gallagher and Kevin Holt – both pretty impressive themselves – was exceptional and allowed United to frustrate Celtic in a way few teams have managed this season.Jamie: The draw is brilliant, the clean sheet is outstanding! This was a massive result to move on from last weekend’s disappointment. Now it’s time for Jim Goodwin to play four at the back against teams outside of the Old Firm. Go for it!Dave: As much a feeling of relief as anything else. Can hardly say we deserved any more, but the defensive performance was almost impeccable and worthy of our point. Will hopefully add to the growing belief that’s developing in the club.Lee: Back to normal after the disappointing defensive display last week vs Motherwell. Discipline, focus and concentration were all on display against the best team in the league and we could even have won it with those half chances at the end. Rangers, Glasgow’s other prominent club, experienced more success than Celtic against the other Dundee team, moving up to second place following a 1-0 victory. Gerry: After two uplifting performances, it was back down to earth with a bang. We just can’t seem to put teams to the sword that come to Ibrox and sit back. We had enough chances. Is it anxiety that creeps in playing teams we should beat comfortably at home?Ronnie: A frustrating 90 minutes but the right result. Why do we struggle to put games to bed against mediocre teams? We dominated throughout yet could have shipped two points at the death. Hamza Igamane was largely ineffectual and, despite the noise around him, he has a lot to improve in his game. Good to see James Tavernier once again have a strong 90 minutes.Finlay: The second-half performance was nowhere close to what the past two games and the first half have been. We can now celebrate being second in the table, which over the past few games we have shown we deserve. Peter: Another impressive performance. Good flowing football. Any other day the ones that hit the woodwork would have went in.Chris: I feel like it was three steps backwards again. I can’t get my head around why we are so bad in the league. We need to start blowing teams away at Ibrox again to reinstate the fear factor. Finishing mediocre teams off like Dundee should be easy, but something’s not quite working yet.Robert: Competent display. The result was never in doubt. The woodwork will need repainted. We still require to be more clinical in front of goal. Dundee supporters maintained a philosophical outlook despite their team falling five points behind sixth-placed St Mirren. Brian: We were wide open down the wings and it was exploited many times. Defence a bit better and big Billy Koumetio is improving. However, we need a decent centre-half – recall Luke Graham now. Powder-puff up front and midfield were pretty anonymous. Not a lot more to be said.Gary: Wasn’t expecting anything from Ibrox, but the team did well under the circumstances. Lack of quality in the opposition box. More winnable games are around the corner shortly. Hearts’ fanbase remains unconvinced, despite Sunday’s 2-1 home victory against St Johnstone, which a fan described as a “‘Spittal winner eases pressure – but derby is massive'”. David: Much better performance, which hopefully will give the players and fans a lift. Feel for James Penrice, who has shone throughout the season, but giving away three penalties (rightly or wrongly) in three games is something that has to be addressed. The January transfer window dealings are crucial for the rest of the season.Chris: I see Neil Critchley thinks we were excellent. Is he trying to convince us or himself? I think it was an improvement but is miles away from “excellent”. Cammy Devlin, however, was excellent and James Penrice too. Hibs have a lot of talent in the forward areas and should come to Tynecastle confident of a win. We need a little bit of luck.Kuptin: Any win is welcome just now. The young guys, Adam Forrester and James Wilson, are the least nervous. But Hearts are full of contradictions just now. Cammy Devlin is great but only passes the ball sideways. James Penrice is obviously the best newcomer but gives away too many penalties. Lawrence Shankland is still good at everything except scoring. It’s a hard watch.Jim: Beating St Johnstone isn’t something normally to crow about, but it’s a start. Hibs will be tougher, but it doesn’t hide the fact that we are struggling to score. January is a chance to start the process of building the team, offload players who don’t have the right attitude and maybe we can avoid relegation. My hopes are not high.Anon: At last we played for each other, we played as a team. Let’s hope this is a start after a disastrous end in Europe.John: I think Neil Critchley deserves the chance to turn things around as he still has the squad Steven Naismith wanted. I saw four players in the starting 11 who should be playing in the lower leagues never mind being at Hearts. Basic passing should be simple enough, but some can’t even do that. The defeat at Tynecastle has left St Johnstone supporters worried under their new manager. Les: Yet again, basic errors are costing us. First half was so poor – Nicky Clark was a huge miss. Simo Valakari has to get this sorted in January or it’s Championship football next season. A goalkeeper, a right-back and possibly another centre-half are the bare minimum.Stuart: Again, poor defensively and in goal. A continuing trend from last January. Fans starting to question Simo Valakari need to remember this squad was built by Craig Levein and he has no options out wide, defensively, or any confidence. We need to break this habit of January windows fixing previous season’s errors.Perry: The last few years we have stayed up without being a goal threat but having a decent defence. Simo Valakari will need a miracle, or Ross County to finish last, to keep us up. The club’s been run into the ground and it’s now all caught up with us.Duncan: Not good enough. January signings? No-one worth having would want to come. The Championship beckons. Can see us finding it even harder to avoid further relegation next season.Gordon: Where do you start after that dross? First-half was a disgrace and, had we been 3-0 down ,we could have had no complaints. Lacked pretty much everything required to win a football match. Team selection a bit baffling and most of the players were gutless. The second-half was better (couldn’t really have been worse), but yet again, defensive frailties cost us dearly.Henri: Starting to lose confidence with Simo Valakari. He seems to play a different formation and team every week. We need a definite tactic to save us from relegation. David Keltjens was fantastic when he came on last week – surprised he didn’t start. Following Saturday’s 3-1 home loss to Hibs, some Aberdeen fans are expressing concern about the recent decline in results after a strong start under Jimmy Thelin. David: We’re not tough enough. Gavin Molloy needs to be replaced – a good footballer but doesn’t have the physical presence needed. Same with Leighton Clarkson. We need a powerful, quick and athletic ball-winning midfielder and a number 10 with good feet who can create chances throughout the 90 minutes.Ben: All the individual mistakes we weren’t making during our great start to the season, we are now. S