SPL Saturday December 21st 2002

Celtic 2

Dundee 0

1:0 Hartson (37); 2:0 Larsson (54)

Att: 56,112

MIB: Dougie McDonald

Celtic: Douglas; Valgaeren, Balde, Laursen; Agathe, Sutton, Lambert, Petrov, Thompson; Larsson, Hartson (Smith 74)

How much must Dundee hate us now? For the past couple of seasons they have been the one team that has consistently come to Parkhead with the intention of winning the game by playing football. They succeeded once, but more often than not Lady Luck has delivered to them a sore kick in the knackers.

And so it was here, with former Dark Blue Rab Douglas being the main reason for our win. After 15 minutes he made a vital save, having been left one on one, and ten minutes later he saved a penalty after Balde committed a totally unnecessary foul. He was assisted in his penalty save by the fact that two of the Dundee players had a square go with each other deciding who should take the kick. Very entertaining, especially after he missed.

After those scares we finally took hold of the game. Hartson should have given us the lead when he was allowed a free header, but he put it straight at the goalie, who touched it over for a corner. From the resultant set piece Hartson made amends with a fine overhead kick that would have had Klaus Fischer turning green with envy. That seemed to wind Dundee and they never really threatened after that.

The second goal was provided by an unlikely source - an accurate cross from Agathe. He looked a bit more like his old self, which meant he was able on occasion to get past his man, but more often than not he either picked the wrong pass or else sent the ball straight into the goalie's hands. For once he got his cross right, and Henrik got back on the scoring trail.

The charmed life of Rab Douglas continued when Laursen hit the ball off his own post in the last few minutes.