Celtic dealing with injuries and fan issues ahead of Kilmarnock game

Celtic go into Sunday’s William Hill Premiership encounter against Kilmarnock with problems on and off the pitch following their European defeat and a further breakdown in relations with supporters.

The Celtic Fans Collective has condemned the club’s decision to ban the Green Brigade ultras group following an incident at the recent midweek win over Falkirk “without a full and transparent investigation”.

Police stated two officers and a steward were “traumatised” after being assaulted by a large group of fans and the club has effectively issued a six-match ban on the Green Brigade.

Celtic claimed about 100 fans had “verbally abused and assaulted” a steward and two police officers in a bid to prevent an arrest being made after an individual assaulted a steward amid a “routine ticket check”.

The Green Brigade responded by complaining about additional security, police presence and ticket checks in the standing section and accused the board of siding with the police in “another instance of police harassment against its supporters”, while disregarding a complaint over the incident.

A statement added: “We categorically refute the allegations against our members and instead contest that Celtic FC and Police Scotland were both the architects and aggressors in this incident.”

The Celtic Fans Collective, an umbrella group which represents a series of supporter organisations, said: “The Green Brigade raised concerns about how police and stewards handled this incident immediately after the Falkirk match, yet the club chose to act without engaging in dialogue or acknowledging those complaints.

“At best, this reflects a familiar pattern of the club reflexively supporting the police position over its own supporters without due process. At worst, it may appear to be a deliberate act of retaliation against a group whose vocal and visual support has embarrassed a complacent hierarchy.”

The escalation of disharmony comes in the wake of Thursday’s 3-1 defeat by Europa League leaders Midtjylland, which led interim manager Martin O’Neill to admit it was “pretty plain to see” the squad was in need of a big rebuild.

O’Neill has lost Callum Osmand to a hamstring injury and has a doubt over Arne Engels on top of the absence of Kelechi Iheanacho, Alistair Johnston and long-term injury victims Cameron Carter-Vickers and Jota.

“You need strength and depth to compete in Europe and obviously, you’ve got your domestic football here,” he said.

“And looking down at the fixtures again, there’s no respite here between now and probably the end of January time. You’re playing weekends and midweek and it’s relentless.

“So you need a big squad to cope with that. And if you are trying to rotate as well too, getting to know the players as quickly as possible is something that is obviously really important.”

Kilmarnock have their own troubles having lost 10 goals in four consecutive defeats and manager Stuart Kettlewell was not reading too much into O’Neill’s admission that Celtic lack physicality.

“Being brutally honest, when you play against Celtic, that’s sometimes something that a lot of teams will look at, that they’re maybe not the tallest,” Kettlewell said.

“But it’s not been an Achilles heel of theirs. It’s not been something that you look at every single week where Celtic concede from dead ball situations.

“What that probably shows you is that over years, not just in the last couple of weeks, that there’s a lot of guys there that maybe don’t stand 6ft 4in, but they take responsibility. They’ve got good levels of concentration.

“But like any game of football, if you get a dead ball situation, we need good quality in our delivery and we need to be inventive in what we’re trying to do.”