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By GARY KEOWN Published: 03: 13 AEST, 24 August 2025 | Updated: 03: 13 AEST, 24 August 2025 View comments Thirteen minutes it took for the banners to be raised and the ‘Sack the Board’ chants to start in the North Curve of Celtic Park. It is tempting to think, though, that an even bigger statement had been made much earlier by way of the official teamsheet. Yes, there’s a massive Champions League play-off with Kairat Almaty taking place on Tuesday with home manager Brendan Rodgers and his team embarking on a gruelling 7, 000-mile round trip. There was always going to be a degree of squad rotation. But gee-whizz. What odds would you have given a year ago, say, if you’d been told that the starting back four in a league game would be Anthony Ralston, Dane Murray, Liam Scales – stepping out as captain, by the way - and Hayato Inamura, a bloke signed for buttons from Japan that the boss had lined up to be punted out on loan before he’d even played a game? Rodgers often chortles about how hidden messages are often found in the most innocuous words and actions, how everything in Glasgow is examined to the nth degree. He’s right, of course. However, this did feel a bit like a signal to the board of the need to bring in a number of new faces in the week or so before the window closes. An act of drawing attention to the real strength in depth within the squad, whoever and whatever is to blame for that. Celtic got the points in the end. Benjamin Nygren, one of the few summer arrivals to date who actually gets a regular game, broke the deadlock just after half-time, Rodgers brought on the cavalry just before the hour with Callum Mc Gregor, Daizen Maeda and James Forrest getting the call from the bench and Nygren netted again with 19 minutes to play. Nygren riles up the home crowd after netting his second of the match The Swede bends the ball beyond Prior to give Celtic a 2-0 lead  From there on, Livingston’s goose was cooked and a further effort from substitute Johnny Kenny made the scoreline more handsome than it might have been. Celtic ran out easy enough winners in the end, but they made heavy weather of it for a while. Of course, a switched-up starting XI gave certain players the opportunity to prove a point ahead of the trip to Almaty for a tie that remains very finely balanced at 0-0 after the first leg at Parkhead. Shin Yamada was invited to lead the line against Livingston and show what prompted the club to table a four-year contract and pay £1. 5million to Kawasaki Frontale for him. Let’s just say he didn’t exactly impress before being hooked for Maeda. An early run to move on to a Murray ball came from an offside position. He did have the ball in the net from close range just before that first protest against the board from the safe standing area, but Arne Engels had been the one in the offside position this time before delivering a low cross to the back post. Apart from that, there was little to get excited about. That applied to the whole team, mind you, rather than just the striker. If Yamada hasn’t done enough to suggest he should get the call for the upcoming £40m-plus shoot-out with Kairat, the same can be said of the likes of Engels and Paulo Bernardo. They kicked things off in midfield alongside Luke Mc Cowan. Engels, though, is a bloke who just looks to be regressing at Celtic Park. Or thinking of a move away. Whatever the story is, you’ve got a real problem when an £11m signing is proving to be as underwhelming as this – and that’s something that Rodgers must be held to account for. He signed him. It’s often forgotten that Bernardo came with a £3m-plus price tag as well. You could argue that he is offering even less than Engels. He certainly didn’t do a heck of a lot here before making way for Mc Gregor. Johnny Kenny came off the bench to net Celtic's third of the afternoon Earning him a pat on the back from his manager at full-time Livingston, meanwhile, arrived in the east end of Glasgow with a very clear game plan – to defend for their lives. At times in that first half, they were deeper than the Mariana Trench. It’s easy to understand why, but, given the makeshift nature of the Celtic team and how poorly they played for long spells, you just wonder how much more of a game David Martindale’s side might have made of it with a little more adventure in their game. There was one point towards the end of the first half, with the game goalless, where substitute Stevie May, on for the injured Shane Blaney, raced up the left wing after picking the ball up, but had absolutely no one in support. In the end, he tried an ambitious ball to Scott Pittman on the other side of the field and the danger was cleared. It wasn’t his fault, really. He had nothing else on. In the end, the only efforts of note that Livi managed were a Daniel Finlayson header that was easily saved by Kasper Schmeichel when the game was dead and buried and a Ryan Mc Gowan effort tipped over in time added-on. The real save of the game, of course, came from visiting keeper Jerome Prior at the end of the first 45. And what a save it was. Nygren had spotted Yang Hyun-jun making a run and hung up a super ball from the right. The South Korean threw himself at it and made perfect contact with his head, but Prior showed sensational reactions to throw out an arm and deflect the ball onto the underside of the bar before seeing it hacked clear. The Celtic support made their feelings towards the board known after 13 minutes Rodgers, too, was left frustrated by his side's inability to break down Livingston  Unfortunately, the Livi No1 couldn’t replicate that form after the break. Two minutes after the restart, Yang cut inside and released a low shot that Prior couldn’t hold. Nygren wasted no time in converting the rebound. Then, on 71 minutes, a ball in from the left from Engels was spilled by the keeper and Nygren pounced again – dispatching it high into the net from inside the area. Kenny, on for Yang, wrapped it up when timing his run nicely to escape his marker and forcing home a Maeda cross. Was it enough to send the fans home happy? Hmmmmm. The last anti-board chants echoed around the ground in the dying minutes. They had also been prevalent just before half-time and early in the second period. The banners flown mentioned ‘zero ambition’, rinsing fans and neglecting the team. CEO Michael Nicholson got told, in no uncertain terms, where to go. If the very worst happens in Kazakhstan in 48 hours’ time, you can be sure the temperature will rise considerably ahead of the closure of the window. Quite how Celtic have got themselves into this pickle is something else, of course. That teamsheet’s just the tip of the iceberg.

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