Celtic4–1Dundee Utd

Celtic scored four times against us for the second time this season to bring our unbeaten run of seven League matches crashing to a halt. Celtic set out their intentions clearly within seconds of the start. Charlie Nicholas let rip from 20 yards and Guido Van De Kamp made a fine acrobatic save to turn the ball round the post for a corner. The outcome of the match hinged on two missed opportunities by us. In the 13th minute Jim McInally almost capitalised on a poor O'Neil passback, but Jim's shot from just outside the box was well saved by Bonner. Celtic quickly broke to the other end as McNally's pass up the right found Coyne who went to the bye-line and fired in a low cross which Charlie Nicholas hammered in from close range. The second scoring opportunity we squandered came in the 33rd minute after arguably the best move of the entire match. Billy McKinlay and Michael O'Neill worked an incisive series of one-twos from one penalty area to the other and Billy McKinlay's shot was touched on to the post and cleared off the line by McNally. Guido Van De Kamp held a good header from O'Neil but was happy to see a Miller shot fly past the far post as Celtic stepped up the pace of the game. The home side were rewarded for this on the stroke of half-time with a second goal when Charlie Nicholas netted a nod down from Coyne, shooting low past Guido Van De Kamp.

The difficult task of pulling back a two goal deficit was turned into a near impossible one within minutes of the commencement of the second half. This time Nicholas set up the scoring chance for Tommy Coyne when the former United striker netted after the ball had rebounded off the post. However, five minutes later we did make inroads into Celtic's lead when Michael O'Neill scored after Mixu Paatelainen's header had been touched onto the post by Bonner. Any lingering aspirations of a comeback were well and truly sunk when Celtic hit a fourth goal with eight minutes left when Mike Galloway crashed a 35 yarder into the top right hand corner. That completed the scoring and handed us our first League defeat since August 24th.