Celtic 3
Dundee Utd 0
League (Premier Division)

Match Report

For the third consecutive away fixture we found ourselves trailing 3-0, but in this instance, we failed to find the target, despite creating numerous scoring chances. Celtic were obviously still fired up after their cup win over Rangers and dictated the early stages with Alan Main saving well from a low shot by McStay and cutting out the danger from a dangerous low cross from Morris. In 19 minutes, however, he was helpless to prevent Mike Galloway's header from a Morris free-kick putting Celtic ahead. Before the interval Paddy Connolly's inventiveness created an opening, but his shot from the edge of the box was off-target. At the other end Dziekanowski sent a shot wide from a good scoring position, but towards half-time we had shown signs of gaining the upper hand which Celtic had established in the early stages.

Perhaps the turning point of the game surrounded an incident which led to Paul Elliot being booked. Morris directed a pass-back which fell perfectly for Paddy Connolly, but as he ran in on goal, Paul Elliot struggling to catch him brought him down on the edge of the box. Following the free-kick, Mixu Paatelainen turned the ball round the post. Alan Main made a tremendous save from Dziekanowski in the 64th minute, but our hopes of maintaining our good record against Celtic dwindled six minutes later when Joe Miller headed in a Tommy Coyne cross. Alan Main came to our rescue again with a brilliant save from McStay, but in the 76th minute we fell further behind when Dziekanowski headed a corner down and Derek Whyte. hooked in their third.

Down we may have been, but we were certainly not out with only some excellent keeping by Bonner preventing us pulling back a goal on a couple of occasions. Ray McKinnon burst his way through and Bonner got down quickly to tip his shot past the far post. Shortly afterwards Alex Cleland was denied twice. Bonner blocked his initial effort and his follow-up shot went past the wrong side of the post. It was that kind of afternoon and meant we lost to Celtic for the first time this season. Indeed it was only our fourth Parkhead defeat in fifteen visits.