SPL Saturday July 28th

Celtic 3

St. Johnstone 0

1:0 Mjallby (36); 2:0 Lambert (64); 3:0 Lambert (80)

Att: 58,005

MIB: Mike McCurry

Celtic: Douglas; Tebily, Mjallby, Valgaeren (Crainey 77); Agathe, Lennon, Lambert, Thompson (Moravcik 77), Petta; Larsson, Sutton

A Saturday kick off ? In Glasgow ? For that reason alone today was special.

There was also the unfurling of the league flag, which went without a hitch, which means that unlike the last time the crowd weren't baying for the head of the man doing the unfurling.

Prior to the flag ceremony we had a wee speech from Brian Quinn, which most people couldn't make out thanks to him using the Joey Ramone style of microphone handling. OFM gave a small speech - once he could a word in edge ways through the singing of his name - and then it was on to the action.

With no new faces in the squad the team simply took up where they had left offlast season. We had a slow start, and even allowed Sylla a couple of looks at the goal, Douglas thwarting him on both occasions. The breakthrough came via what we here at NTV believe to be a set piece. Thompson hit his corner high to the for edge of the box where Petta was standing waiting. He got to the bye line and slung a great ball on to the head of Mjallby.

The second half performance was a step up, but you got the feeling that Celtic never bothered shifting out of second gear, mainly because they didn't have to. Larsson made himself a great chance, but put the ball wrong side of the post, although he didn't score he still posed a constant threat.

An indication of how our team has changed recently can be seen from the build up to Lambert's first goal. Former next great thing at Celtic, now starring for St. Johnstone, McBride tried a hugely optimistic back heel in his own half. Lambert picked it up, played a one-two with Larsson and slid the ball under Main. In years gone by we would have been the team attempting the fancy stuff in our own half (football purists don't you know), and losing goals a-plenty thanks to it. That kind of thing is almost completely in the past... almost because we still have Bombscare in the defence and he is prone to that kind of thing. The impending fitness of Samuel L. Jackson should see to that.

The final goal was a fine left foot swipe from the captain. After his amazing banana effort with his right foot in the first half (a shot that almost went for a throw in) his left seemed to have found its range far quicker.

Predictably Lambert got man of the match, but the real star, the central cog of the Celtic machine was Chris Sutton. It amazes me that he very rarely gets his name sung, he is a superb player. Almost everything good we did went through him, and he managed to avoid picking up a booking, hopefully a sign of things to come from the player was the most fouled player in the league last term (incredibly he also committed the most fouls).

So, the league defence gets off to a decent start, and what odds would you have got on predicting the score and the scorers ?

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