Celtic moved past the 100-year-old record set by Willie Maley’s side during the First World War years by defeating St Johnstone 4-0 on 4th November 2017. Their last Scottish based defeat had come 542 days prior, on 11th May 2016, 1-2 at the home of the same opponents. Scottish league football carried on during the First World War years and are officially recognised in the record books although the Scottish Cup competitions were cancelled. Celtic won 4 titles during that time, and the record run of 62 matches undefeated includes league matches only. During that run, Celtic famously played two matches on the same day, defeating Raith Rovers (6-0) then Motherwell (3-1) on 15th April 1916. Motherwell also played twice that day.
Maley’s side finally lost on the 21st April 1917, 0-2 at home to Kilmarnock, against whom Celtic equalled the 62-match unbeaten run on 31st October 2017.
Celtic have increasingly seen teams adopt a very defensive strategy when playing at Celtic Park. 5 of the 7 draws have been home games. Away from home, only two games have not resulted in Celtic wins. At Inverness, a last-minute Fisher header saved a point for the Highlanders. At Ross County, Don Robertson failed to interpret Schalk’s dive correctly as a late penalty saw the home side to 2-2.
The Champions have won all 5 matches played on artificial surfaces: two at Hamilton Academical and Kilmarnock and a Cup tie at Albion Rovers.
The Vanquished
Given the 12-team set up in Scotland’s Premier division, Celtic have only faced 15 different clubs in setting the record.
The “least worst” opponent has been Hibernian, who came within 10 minutes of defeating Celtic in a 2-2 draw at Celtic Park. This is by 1-minute Celtic’s closest shave over the run – St Johnstone were 11 minutes from victory in August 2017, also at Celtic Park. In both cases Callum McGregor saved a point for the Bhoys.
Callum McGregor – saver of records
Most impressive is the almost complete subjugation of the sides that would consider themselves rivals. Aberdeen are without doubt the second-best team in the country, but Celtic seem to reserve an extra gear for those encounters. The Scottish Cup Final saw the Dons come within a minute of avoiding a 90-minute defeat. Remind me what happened?
Heart of Midlothian and The Rangers have similarly seen regular heavy defeats. Most encouragingly is the fact Celtic have scored more against League Cup Finalists Motherwell (20) than any other team during the run.
Goals Galore
183 goals started with a 7-0 victory over Motherwell, the most comprehensive win of the sequence. Once Celtic get past 2, they are as likely to score 4 or 5 as stop at 3. No-one has stopped Celtic scoring domestically since Dundee on the 6th April 2016.
21 players have scored those goals, with o.g.’s accounting for 1.
Dembele leads the way with 33 during this run but 8 players have managed double figures. Griffiths is surprisingly 4th on 19 goals. Sinclair leads the way for League goals only, with 25. Dembele is quite the Cup specialist with most in the Scottish Cup (5) and League Cup (7). He is averaging exactly 1 goal per game during this run.
Overall there are six players averaging a goal every other game or better:
- Dembele 1.00
- Griffiths 0.76
- Sinclair 0.62
- Rogic 0.5
- Armstrong 0.49
- Christie 0.49
Le Numbers, c’est bon
Conversely, Celtic have kept 36 clean sheets, almost 50% off the matches in the sequence. Motherwell have been the most prolific managing 3 in one game, a 4-3 Celtic win. There have been 6 instances of opponents netting 2: St Johnstone and Hibernian twice; Inverness Caledonian Thistle and Ross County once.
Craig Gordon has been the ‘keeper for all but 1 of the clean sheets. De Vries was in net when Celtic won 1-0 against Dundee in October 2017.
All in the Timing
A noticeable feature of last season was that Celtic scored a lot of goals late in the game. Against defensive teams, who have very low possession, this was not surprising, although it also indicates improved Celtic fitness levels. 34 goals (19%) were scored in the last 10 minutes and 57 (32%) in the last 20 minutes.
Otherwise goals came quite steadily through the first 70 minutes aside from the first 10 minutes.
35 goals against is quite a small sample, but Celtic also conceded most frequently in the last 10 minutes, shipping 8 (23%).
Celtic were able to keep it tight in the crucial periods before and after half time, losing only 4 goals across those period, compared to 31 scored.
Dictating Terms
Across 63 matches, Celtic won 50 by taking the lead and winning the game.
Of the remaining 13:
Wins from losing positions = 6
Winning from a losing position is usually satisfying although there are some big wins in here. The 4-3 at Motherwell and of course the Scottish Cup Final treble winner in the 90th minute will both go down as memorable Celtic matches from this age.
Draws from losing positions = 2
Those 2 matches represent the closest the unbeaten run has been to an end. Hibernian were 10 minutes and St Johnstone 11 minutes from victory.
Draws from winning positions = 5
There are some hard luck stories in here, not that Celtic will expect much sympathy! Inverness Caledonian Thistle score an equaliser in the last minute. Griffiths was denied a clear penalty in the last minute of the Glasgow Derby draw against The Rangers. Sinclair missed a penalty in the Glasgow Derby against Partick Thistle. The 2-2 Ross County game saw Schalk rewarded for a blatant dive for a late penalty equaliser.
The rest of Scotland are bemoaning such bad breaks for the Champions I am sure.
Creative Industry
24 players have created goals during this run. There are 8 in double figures, but the highest is Roberts with 19. Sinclair leads with 6 Cup assists.
Look above Pep. Right good, me.
In terms of regular contributors, Griffiths (0.64) has a better assist rate per 90 minutes than Roberts (0.63). They are both well ahead of Dembele (0.46), Rogic (0.43) and Forrest (0.42) all around an assist every other game.
Domination
The extent to which Celtic can dominate domestic matches is be seen with a few core metrics. Averaging 69% possession, Celtic out pass the opposition by around 3:1. From that possession, they fashion comparatively more on target chances to the ratio of 3.4:1. Whilst the opposition perform as per the Expected Goals model, Celtic on average outperform the model, possessing players capable of shooting accurately from distance, and possessing higher calibre creators and finishers than the average players in the league.
Consideration of Expected Goals reveals the games were Celtic perhaps “got away with it”. Over 63 matches, there were four where Celtic’s xG was lower than or equal to the oppositions.
Raining Goals
The Bhoys have a particularly good record when it rains. A slick and fast surface may assist the fast passing style.
It always rains on The Rangers! Four matches have been played against the Glasgow side amidst the deluge, but they did get a famous point at Celtic Park. And five of the 14 matches have been Cup ties to add to the drama of knockout, including a League Cup Semi Final and last season’s Scottish Cup Final.
Stuck in The Middle with You
As with the opposition, operating in a small sized league in a small country, the same referees come around regularly. Overseeing the record run have been the following fine specimen.
Celtic average about 69% possession over the 63 matches. Just sayin’!
The Contributors
Finally, who are the Bhoys that have contributed most to the making of history? 39 players have appeared in the 63 matches, over three seasons.
The first category is The Backbone. They have contributed the most to the cause in terms of minutes on the park. No surprise the goalkeeper and captain are in there. Gratifying to see four Scots.
Then there are those who are integral to the squad, and have contributed in 40-50% of the game time.
Those that have contributed between 10 and 20 % of the game time.
Finally, the odds and sods! Young prospects, the dearly departed and the “never wills”.
There Will Be Moaners
Professional football in Britain is still a relatively modern phenomenon, being formally organised from the mid to late 19th Century. There are not may records that have stood for 100 years, however. If it was an easy record to break, others may have broken it earlier. Plenty of big clubs have had spells in lower divisions for example. Even Manchester United had a spell in the English second tier in the 1970s. Such experiences would, you may think, lead to opportunities to build such records. The fact Celtic have achieved this run in three different competitions makes it even more remarkable. In short, there will always be detractors, such is the norm around Celtic, but the odds are I won’t be repeating this type of article again in the lifetime of Celtic By Numbers!
Absolutely brilliant summary. Onwards to 64……and to 65….and to….