Keith Jackson: Last News

Neil Lennon to be pushed even further towards the end.

Gordon Strachan definitely doesn’t want to receive.But just because the conversation would be excruciatingly awkward at both ends of the line, it doesn’t make a possible solution to Celtic’s current dilemmas any less obvious. Or perhaps even inevitable if Neil Lennon can’t find a way to pull himself out of a tailspin which is threatening to see the club’s quest for 10 In A Row crash and burn around him.

Keith Jackson: It’s no longer a question for polls but for Peter Lawwell to answer. Celtic’s chief executive must have been agonising over it all weekend.

Steve Clarke and his players kept their calm even when it seemed they had been punched out on their feet.The cruelty involved here should not be forgotten even though, in the end, this was a story of unimaginable joy.Five superb penalty kicks. One incredible spot-kick save from David Marshall who will return home as the man of the hour.But the truth is, Clarke’s players were almost superhuman in the way they entered the history books having played Serbia off their own pitch before being floored by the ultimate in sucker punches.A sublime Ryan Christie goal had them within 25 seconds of ending 22 years of excruciating pain.

Keith Jackson:Celtic badly need to dig a result out on the road after last week’s false start. A point in France would be a decent response and should be achievable.

Neil Lennon escaped from Rugby Park on the right end, if there can be such a thing, of a 3-3 draw.Much has happened in the nine years since.In fact, had it not been for that double from Anthony Stokes and a late equaliser from Charlie Mulgrew, perhaps Lennon would not have been anywhere near Pittodrie yesterday, when he managed to find himself on the wrong end of the exact same result, knowing full well it could have been worse.On that day in Ayrshire, Lennon’s job was on the line.

Neil Lennon.Too soon to press the panic button. Too late to do much about it in any case.It’s not that losing the first Old Firm game of the season should spook the Parkhead boss or cause him to rush back to the drawing boardOn the contrary, he shouldn’t even have been overly surprised by the defeat given that, for a variety of reasons, almost everyone else saw it coming from a mile off.But what ought to be causing him some serious concern is that Rangers were able to dominate his side all over the pitch and to control Saturday’s contest without operating to anywhere near their maximum levels.To lose one derby on your own pitch may be regarded as a misfortune.

Steven Gerrard reaching for a stiff drink, on Thursday night the two managers must also face monumental play-off matches which will determine if there’s a place for them in the group stages of this season’s Europa League. At a time when money can seldom have been tighter, there will be a lot more than just their managerial reputations on the line.

Steven Gerrard is hanging on the First Minister’s every word. It might just be the Rangers manager’s chances of going the distance in this season’s title race may be enhanced by a prolonged run of matches behind closed doors.

Keith Jackson: There’s something not quite right about Edouard. Injured one minute, fit enough to play for France Under- 21s the next, then too tired to start against Livingston on Saturday.

Scotland shirts, of course they did.But even though Steve Clarke and his players flirted with the notion of dragging us to a new kind of rock bottom last night, eventually they escaped from Olomouc having dodged the bullet to end them all.By the skin of their teeth. Not that scraping a win against a third, maybe even fourth-rate Czech Republic side is anything to feel good about.

Alfredo Morelos?It’s hardly a new question.

Steven Gerrard as if he’d just experienced a recurring nightmare.No creativity, no cutting edge and not even a real sense of urgency to dig their way out the giant hole they made for themselves on West Lothian’s dreaded carpet.And, as a result of allowing two points to slip through their grasp, no advantage either in the race for this year’s title now that Celtic’s slip up at Kilmarnock has been carelessly scrubbed out.Most of all though, Gerrard will be left wondering if it’s happening all over again.

coronavirus eventually spluttered its way around the world, it was inevitable the game in this country would take a real-life crisis and turn it into one big s**tshow of a drama. Sport may have been placed on pause but the controversy and the vitriol have raged on relentlessly even though the ball was locked away in the cupboard.

Rangers manager won’t have been satisfied by a great deal of what he saw during last week’s back-to-back 2-0 wins over Lyon and Nice, as his players were brought back out of coronavirus cold storage.Considering it’s been four months since football was forced into lockdown, Gerrard’s team looked secure at the back, relatively sharp going forward and full of energy and purpose in the midfield where three players in particular - Steven Davis, Ryan Jack and Joe Aribo - produced some eye catching performances.All of those positives will matter much more to the manager than lifting a trophy that no-one had heard of until the Old Firm crossed the channel for their summer tour.For his part, Neil Lennon too will have been glad just to get back down

KEITH JACKSON: It’s impossible to predict with any certainty now it’s in the hands of the lawyers. Even so, it does seem that the best result for the two clubs will be a wedge of compensation cash.CRAIG SWAN: With some money to help them out in the form of compensation, you suspect.

Eventually Scottish football will get around to the business of attempting to save itself from the catastrophic consequences of Covid-19. Hopefully not before it’s too late but most definitely not quite yet.

He's about to have his feet held to the fire.

It had better contain some serious blow-your-socks-off stuff.

Neil Doncaster is the man at the eye of the storm which has been ripping through Scottish football since the game was forced into a coronavirus lockdown.

The argument over how to fix the leak in Scottish football’s roof rages on. Meanwhile, Leeann Dempster’s meteor is still bowling out of the heavens towards the house.