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Celtic are still some way off their best and it’s underlined with multiple questions over the current squad

Junior Adamu got one clear-cut chance and snapped it up with panache.

Tomas Cvancara, despite some deft touches, didn’t even get one proper sighter.

On initial impressions, Celtic look as if they may have found themselves a couple of capable strikers during the chaos of the last transfer window.

But that’s not going to be of much use to Martin O’Neill if he can’t find a way to get them a regular supply. And solving that puzzle could well hold the key to either Celtic winning silverware this season or finishing empty handed.

Sebastian Tounekti came up trumps in this one from the wide area. His impact from the bench kept his team in the Scottish Cup after Ethan Hamilton’s cracker had Dundee ahead deep in stoppage time.

The Tunisian produced the much-needed trickery and delivery after skinning full-back Brad Halliday to let Adamu cushion a beautiful debut backflick into the net.

Just two minutes into extra-time, Tounekti subsequently worked a slick one-two with Luke McCowan and buried the winner.

It’s amazing what a bit of confidence can do for a winger. Tounekti probably doesn’t score that goal if he doesn’t produce the magic for the equaliser as he flew out for the additional 30-minute period having been saluted by his colleagues during the break.

There’s a player in there, he’s just never shown enough of it since signing. It’s not easy to settle instantly into such a huge club and this might act as a catalyst for him.

That would certainly be a boost to O’Neill because, for various spells at the moment, open-play creativity is an issue.

For over 90 minutes against diligent Dundee, the problem was absolutely glaring.

It’d be easy to watch a highlights package and think Cvancara did nothing, yet he got a raw deal. The Czech’s deft touch and strength when it went up to him properly was impressive at times, yet he fed off paltry scraps, just as he had to do against Hearts and Falkirk in his previous two appearances.

Hyunjun Yang produced very little for him on one side and Joel Mvuka barely set the pulses racing on the other with a debut which hardly ignited the stadium.

No-one is going to fully judge a new signing on a quiet debut. The on-loan Norwegian looked eager enough, but the end product was zero.

O’Neill had seen enough by the interval launching James Forrest into fray which left Yang and the veteran the wide options at the beginning of the second period, the very situation Celtic were trying to move on from when they went into the window last summer.

Michel-Ange Balikwisha remains the biggest mystery of the season in terms of signings this term and, again, wasn’t even sighted, even with the boss making pre-match alterations and switches.

Daizen Maeda offers the most danger from the flanks when in place and, with loanees Adamu and Cvancara in the building, he might now get to stay wide.

Tounekti hasn’t been consistent enough yet in a Celtic shirt, but this was an indication of what he can do and, in any case, this isn’t just about wide players for O’Neill.

At this moment in time, there is a lack of ingenuity and guile being shown from within the midfield ranks.

Arne Engels got the night off and it opened a door wide open for Reo Hatate and Paulo Bernardo to go out and show they are, indeed, the individuals with the nous and quality, as they have both shown in the past.

The sight of Alex Oxlade Chamberlain on the park pre-match should have given them a gee-up, but, once again, bar the odd flash, the pair didn’t grip the game. Didn’t carve openings as often as the boss would want or need.

Granted, midfield players need movement and the right runs to be made in front of them to give them targets to hit, but even so, the Japanese and the Portuguese once again didn’t fully fire and that’s been the case far too often this term.

McCowan came off the bench and the weight of pass at the one-two to perfectly set-up Tounekti’s winner was a rare moment of quality.

It was Kieran Tierney, and not one of the engine-room boys, who forced a couple of saves from Jon McCracken before Tounekti arrived to produce the magic.

Benjamin Nygren has been the most-dangerous of the midfield players this term with an obvious eye for a goal, but on the evidence of his Celtic career so far, he gets on the end of things as opposed to teeing them up for others.

Nygren has 15 goals for his club. Some of which have come from heading home set-pieces, so it said much for Celtic’s disjointed acts during the game that, as his team were chasing an equaliser, he was the one sent out to take the corners from his side’s left when he should really have been inside the box waiting to attack them.

It was that type of evening. A confusing affair of 14 subs due to extra-time and Tierney’s head knock, individuals in the Main Stand screaming flak into the Directors Box as Dundee looked cert winners and other home fans boycotting before Celtic joy and and relief at full-time.

Tounekti’s creativity to give a striker something to finish was, ultimately, the moment that changed it for the hosts.