SATURDAY DECEMBER 13th Premier League

Celtic 3

Dundee 2

1:0 Larsson 15
1:1 Fotheringham 20
2:1 Balde 69
3:1 Kennedy 87
3:2 Mair 90

Att: 57,573

MIB: Dougie McDonald

Celtic: Douglas Varga Balde Mjallby Miller Lennon Sutton Petrov Thompson Maloney Larsson

subs
Smith for Maloney 55
Kennedy for Mjallby 63

Hedman finally loses his grip on the thing he should never have had in the first place - our first team jersey. And with a sense of comic timing that Richard Pryor would envy Rab returns and makes a right pig's ear of it.

He couldn't be blamed for the first goal. That honour went to the other Lyon hero of the hour - Bobo. He completely mistimed a clearing header straight to the feet of ex-Celt Fotherigham, who took a couple of steps forward and curled a superb shot in off the bar.

That cancelled out Larsson's opener, a nice move down the left from Thompson, cross in to the box, Sutton dummies it and Larsson clips it in. Nice. That was our first coherent move, for, make no mistake about it, the smell of stale European beer, and thumping hangover hung heavy over this game.

Dundee's equaliser didn't exactly improve the atmos. I've never seen an SPL manager exhort the crowd the way OFM did. He looked like a stage hand from The Price is Right.

The second half was nervy. We couldn't get into our stride and Dundee were giving our defence a few shaky moments, but the removal of Mjallby for Kennedy steadied the ship. The second was a much needed tonic for everyone, but especially for the scorer - Bobo. He still looked shell shocked from Lyon, but when Sutton managed to hook a Thompson free kick back across the goal mouth he threw himself at it to restore the lead. His game improved markedly after that.

The third was a bobbly effort that eventually went in off Kennedy. That should have wrapped things up, but Rab had still to put his foot in it. Having saved a one-on-one situation early on, and generally looked pretty decent he went for a cross that he had no chance of getting, thereby costing us a goal - although special mention must go to the defence who, seeing their 'keeper in trouble, left Mair completely unmarked at the edge of the six yard box.

The goalie debate rages on and on and on and on... However, with Dunfermline doing the business the next day things are already looking up for a good new year.