There comes a point when even the very best of them are powerless to prevent circumstances from determining a team’s fate.
Across two spells this season, Martin O’Neill’s managerial sorcery has kept Celtic in this title race when logic suggester their hopes should have been sunk long ago.
We’ve had the Wilfried Nancy debacle. Any sense of unity fractured by an ongoing conflict between the hierarchy and the club’s most vocal supporters.
The recruitment has been abysmal. There have been enough injuries to fill the wing of a cottage hospital. The first-choice goalkeeper stands accused of playing when he should have admitted defeat and joined the walking wounded.
Then there’s the striker situation which, frankly, beggars belief. The top scoring out-and-out centre forward is Johnny Kenny. After scoring four league goals, he moved to Bolton on loan in January.
It says much for O’Neill that Celtic were still swinging, still toughing it out. and still in this title race for so long.
Dundee United’s Emmanuel Agyei, on right, celebrates scoring his team’s second goal
They aren’t done for yet, but this was a seriously wounding blow to their aspirations of getting over the line for the 56th time. It felt like the day when the veteran could push water up the hill no more.
When they come to write up the story of a chaotic campaign, Tannadice will feature heavily among the occasions when it all went badly wrong.
Nancy’s side lost here before Christmas, and Sunday was to prove a nightmarish return to this corner of Tayside for the Parkhead men.
A passable first half display from the visitors came and went without any cutting edge. They were miles off it in the second period, outplayed, outmuscled and outthought by a much-improved Dundee United side.
They looked done for the minute Will Ferry edged United ahead. On the balance of play, Emmanuel Agyei’s second was no more than the home side deserved.
On this evidence, Celtic can kiss goodbye to their hopes of lifting the trophy again.
No team in the three-points-for-a-win era has won the title while suffering eight defeats, as they have now. Now five points behind Hearts and two behind Rangers, it would be remarkable if Celtic don’t suffer at least another loss in the remaining seven games.
What a day this was for United – the first time since 1991 that they had beaten Celtic at Tannadice twice in a season.
Martin O’Neill looks crestfallen on sidelines as champions fall to a damaging 2-0 defeat
Jim Goodwin’s side had 19 shots on target and dominated the second period. They still have an outside chance of making the top-six. If they continue to play like this, they will make Falkirk sweat for it.
Predicting a Celtic line-up these days is a fool’s errand. Without a league start in three months, Kelechi Iheanacho was in danger of becoming the forgotten man. Yet, there he was, starting up front, with Tomas Cvancara nowhere to be seen, apparently ill. Ditto, Julian Araujo.
On the back of a display in the Tayside derby which was decent until the roof fell in on 94 minutes and Dundee fought back to make it 2-2, Goodwin had no hesitation in telling his players to go again.
The Tannadice pitch was so bare that this game was never going to be easy on the eye. O’Neill looked a worried man as he surveyed the scene before kick-off.
You had to feel for both sets of players. You lost count of the number of times the ball skipped up on the surface just as they looked to control it.
Stringing four passes together felt like an achievement. It was little wonder that clear opportunities chances were at a premium.
Although United were happy to give up possession, they still carved out enough half chances to engage their supporters.
Max Watters flashed Ferry’s corner over the top. When Amar Fatah failed to connect with Watters’ cross, Ferry forced Viljami Sinisalo to spring to his left to prevent his shot finding the top corner.
Will Ferry is lifted up by Ama Fatah after he scored the all-important opener for United
Iheanacho was one of the few players who showed a steady touch on an atrocious surface. He turned Ferry inside out to free Hyun-jun Yang. Luca Stephenson took the winger out at the cost of a booking.
From Benjamin Nygren’s corner, Kieran Tierney set himself up with a perfect first touch. His half-volley flew just over the top.
Liam Scales got himself into a real fankle while trying to deal with Fatah’s threaded pass. He chopped down Neil Farrugia, and escaped with a booking as Tierney was covering.
Reo Hatate strived manfully to impose his class on a low-quality encounter. A brilliant ball by the Japanese put Iheanacho in the clear. The forward took the strike on first time. Ashley Maynard-Brewer pulled off a fine stop.
Celtic looked the most likely to find the breakthrough. They were well placed to do so as they threw numbers forward on the counter. A woeful pass from Nygren denied Daizen Maeda a one-on-one opportunity.
There was much more about United at the start of the second half. Watters sent a header into the arms of Sinisalo following Stephenson’s cross.
Arriving six minutes after the break, the opener stemmed from Callum McGregor being short with a pass to Hatate.
United were on their way, with Vicko Sevelj waiting on Stephenson’s overlapping run. His cross evaded a raft of outstretched limbs.
Ferry’s connection wasn’t clean, but he managed to bounce the ball into the turf. It had enough on it to prevent Sinisalo getting a hand to it.
The Celtic players look like a beaten bunch during a tough day at Tannadice
O’Neill responded swiftly by replacing Iheanacho and McGregor with Seb Tounekti and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.
Moments later, there was an enforced change, with Colby Donovan hobbling off and Luke McCowan thrown on.
What a scare Maynard-Brewer then gave the home fans. He looked to be right behind Hatate’s strike from the edge of the box only to fumble it onto the inside of the post.
Hatate had moved to right-back as part of the reshuffle. How telling that proved as Ferry left him for dead shortly before United doubled their lead.
Watters’ shot was repelled by Scales, but only as far as far as Agyei. His powerful strike from the edge o the box might have had the beating of Sinisalo in any event. A nick off Scales’ foot ensured the Finn had absolutely no chance.
United could easily have gone three ahead. Sevelj planted a header straight at the keeper when he only needed to stick it either side.
Celtic’s response amounted to a McCowan strike, which Maynard-Brewer watched all the way, and a wayward Maeda effort from three yards.
Over the piece, they didn’t do nearly enough to merit anything from the game. You feel like the same rationale applies to their season.
