SPL Saturday August 24th

Partick Thistle 0

Celtic 1

0:1 Larsson (71)

Att: 8,053

MIB: Mike McCurry

Celtic: Douglas; Valgaeren, Balde, Laursen; Sylla, Petrov, Lennon (Hartson 64), Lambert, Guppy; Larsson, Sutton

A trip to Maryhill to chew the fat and a enjoy a bit of the West-End banter, made for a masquerade of a televised SPL match. In the light of the death threats from Loyalist sectarian bigots made against Neil Lennon in midweek, one might have expected Glasgow's footballing bourgeoisie to show bit more bonhommie towards Celtic's peroxide Mr Ed. But the old anti - Celtic sentiment soon came to the fore. ThoseCelts mingling with the home support can vouch for chants of 'Shitebag Lennon' and cries of 'Bottler!' Press coverage after this match painted a glowing picture of tolerance amongst the Jags fans and, as usual, ignored or played down any abuse towards the Celtic player.

On the football front this one was easy to forget. With minds clearly focussed on Basel next Wednesday, Celtic went through the motions. Thistle didn't manage a shot on target in the entire 90 minutes. In fact they only managed one shot at all, late in the game. Throwing 9 men behind the ball and harrying the Hoops they did stifle play.

Long range efforts from Balde and a few duff touches from Sutton brought out the best in the terracing wits. Chants of 'there;s only two Amorusos' greeted Balde's miss and then 'there's only three Amorusos' acccompanied Sutton's . The wags. They tried ' Are you Rangers in disguise?', but their balloon was burst when the travelling support reorted with 'Are you Scotland in disguise?'-nuff said!

Celtic's threats were limited and Larsson missed a few chances, despite the calibre of the clods in the Jags' defence. Henke eventually finished chewin' and did some spittin' when he chested in a Hartson flick across the box after beating Derek Whyte to the ball to put the Tic 1:0 in front. John Lambie was then seen checking the soles of Whyte's boots for lead.

It was a relief to all when this finished and a stark reminder of some of the third world football and middens that pass for football stadia in the SPL.