Celtic title race: Maloney predicts more chaos after debut heroics

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain marked his Celtic debut with a dramatic late winner against Livingston, prompting assistant manager Shaun Maloney to warn that the Scottish Premiership title race has plenty more twists to come.

The former England international struck to secure a vital 2-1 victory for the champions, preventing a damaging slip-up against the league’s bottom side.

That intervention moved the Hoops back within six points of leaders Hearts, with a crucial game in hand still to play.

Late drama defines title tilt

It was a midweek round defined by frantic finishes across the top flight.

While Martin O’Neill’s side snatched victory in the dying moments, their Glasgow rivals Rangers were left frustrated.

In a twist of irony, Celtic loanee Stephen Welsh scored an 89th-minute equaliser for Motherwell to deny Danny Rohl’s men two vital points.

Hearts, meanwhile, maintained their charge at the summit thanks to Tomas Magnusson’s 88th-minute winner in the Edinburgh derby against Hibernian.

With late goals impacting all three contenders, Maloney believes the script is far from finished.

The win over Livingston was big. We’ve had a couple [of late wins] recently, even in the Scottish Cup. Last night felt good and now we’re quickly on to Kilmarnock.

They [Hearts] scored late as well. It feels like there’s going to be a few more of these.

Playing catch-up

The Parkhead club have endured a turbulent campaign following the departure of Brendan Rodgers.

Having previously trailed by eight points, the coaching staff acknowledge the psychological strain of constantly chasing the leaders.

For us, it’s felt slightly different, with the amount of change we’ve had… having to claw back the eight points and then coming back again, it feels like we’re constantly catching up.

It still feels like that at the moment. Obviously, with Hearts, the points difference and Rangers above us, we’re trying to just tick off each game.

Resilience over performance

While the result was favourable, the performance against a relegation-threatened Livingston was far from straightforward.

Maloney admitted the team should have been more clinical in the opening stages but praised the squad’s refusal to accept a draw.

I think you could be critical and say we should take those chances, more than one. We had two, three, four big ones.

But actually, the mentality of the group, when it’s difficult, when it’s 1-1, the fans know the expectation – you have to give the group a big amount of credit for doing that, again, going to the last minute.

Celtic travel to Rugby Park to face Kilmarnock on Sunday as they look to further close the gap at the top.