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Wow! Cream always comes to the top and Ryan will become one of, if not the best talent to come from this area. It may not happen with Celtic but this boy will get there.

In such short clips from just one angle it can be difficult to get a proper appreciation of the incident. However, in Gordon's case what is clear is that he had both feet off the ground and he was leading with his foot 3ft off the ground with his studs showing. Intentional or not, it was reckless and a red card without any doubt. Unfortunately I don't think the compliance officer will be able to take any action here. Remember when Celtic vindictively tried to have Meekings punished for his alleged handball in the semi-final, the ruling was that the officials had seen the incident but had adjudged it not to be handball. Whether or not it was a correct decision was not relevant because the role of the Compliance Officer is to deal with incidents which the match officials did not see. Clearly. the ref saw the incident last night as he gave Gordon a yellow card. I absolutely agree that refs are under huge pressure and face abuse when they make incorrect decisions. That abuse will naturally be greatest when the error goes against the clubs with the biggest support and therefore they tend to give those clubs the benefit of the doubt. The concept of the Compliance Officer being empowered to take retrospective action when refs get things wrong is OK so far as it allows a player to be punished with an appropriate ban, but the danger there is that it would make refs even more inclined to chicken out of sending players off. They may think that if it really should have been a red card, the CO will deal with it later. That would not be right in the context of the match and it is important that decisive action is taken during the match so that teams suffer the consequence of the recklessness of their players. Last night, Celtic should have played the entire 2nd half with 10 men. Would it have made a difference to the final outcome? Maybe. Maybe not. What I do know is that Alloa were cheated out of the opportunity of finding out. All it needed was an official sitting in front of a TV monitor to take responsibility for the decision and give a clear steer to the referee through his earpiece. It's all very well criticising referees for some of the dreadful decisions they make, but things are unlikely to improve until referees get meaningful support from the football authorities. Sadly, I can't see that happening any time soon.

I've never been convinced Christie has what it takes to be a top player although he clearly has real talent. One of the problems for him here was that he emerged just as Hughes was taking over and therefore was restricted by a system which put possession before creative flair. Last season, despite alarm and even anger at his departure, we actually did better after he left, and whilst there may be other reasons for that, the fact remains that we didn't really miss him in the context of the type of football we were playing. It would be interesting to see how he played if you replaced him for Vigurs in the current team under Foran's much more positive approach. Had he stayed an extra year with us I firmly believe he would have developed more as a player due to regular match day experience and the confidence that being a key player in a side brings. Yes, he will no doubt get a chance or two to impress at Celtic but unless he immediately shines he will not be able to command a regular starting place. Had he stayed here an extra year and then moved to Celtic, a first team place might have been his to lose rather one to grasp for. At the moment, he is too far down the pecking order at Celtic and for his sake I hope that he is put out on loan to get regular first team football. If he doesn't, then I fear he will become yet another of football's promising youngsters who, for a few short years, get paid a lot of money for playing very little football. He could have been a legend had he stayed here. Instead, in a few years time, I fear he may be Ryan who? to Celtic fans. Here's hoping I'm proved wrong.

My impression is that Rodgers sees - or certainly saw - something in him: he was used a lot in pre-season, and started the first European game, in Gibraltar. By most accounts, though, he was noticeably poor in a very poor team performance - maybe partly nerves and partly being used in a position, coming in off wide left, that's not his best. That probably didn't help his chances, but nevertheless, although he's been on and off the bench since, there was no talk of him going on loan in August, whereas apparently Mackay-Steven and Armstrong would both have been encouraged to go had the deals been right. The biggest problem he's got, as people have pointed out, is that he's competing for places in the area where Celtic are by far at their strongest. Rodgers obviously was under pressure to deliver results and impressive-looking signings straight away, and went for Sinclair, who justified his faith immediately and is an obvious starter given the level he's played at; Rogic is a bit ahead of Christie in terms of time spent with the squad and Celtic first-team games, and he's looked very comfortable in the number 10 role; and players who might have been expected to leave, like Forrest and, apparently, in the last month, Armstrong especially, seem to have had a new lease of life under Rodgers. Rodgers is on record as having said that since the Armstrong loan deal fell through, he's realised that Armstrong's best position is as a number 10; this is potentially bad news for Christie, as he's now got at least two direct competitors for his best position. Things move fast in football, so having been in the plans in August, it may be that come January, he will be advised to go on loan - and he should probably go. BTW, while I think he's easily talented enough to make it at that level in the longer term, I'm not sure if the English Championship in the second half of the season would be the best place for a player who is still quite young and lacking competitive match practice - the pressure could be absolutely enormous if he's at a team at either end of the division, and it might not do his confidence any good if things don't go well. If they are facing competition at the top of the Scottish Championship, however, I could see possibly see Hibs going for him, given the Lennon-Celtic connection; a step down, for sure, but it would potentially keep his profile high in Scotland and allow him, potentially, to be a player who makes the difference. Whatever happens, I really, really hope that before the end of this season, he's back playing regularly somewhere - it would be awful if such a talent was allowed to dwindle.