SPL Sunday December 21st

Motherwell 0

Celtic 2

0:1 Hartson 4
0:2 Thompson 71

Att: 10,513

MIB: John Underhill

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

subs
Smith for Larsson 41

It's Christmas, so the hacks have got themselves into a festive frenzy. Having overdosed on Christmas spirits and the laxative properties of figgy pudding, they indulged themselves by fabricating mince pies about a Celtic goalkeeping crisis. On the back of the Hedman blunder, they trumpeted the 'shock exclusive' that Rab D now wants away from the club. Big deal!

Douglas did his talking on the park and secured his position (not hard at the moment, admittedly) without any further tabloid tantrums.

The match was a standard piece of Butchery. Motherwell were all huff and puff and were aided considerably by some old fashioned inept officiating courtesy of MIB John Underhill.

Celtic managed to get off to a flyer, with Thommo almost forcing an own goal in the opening minutes, followed quickly after by the early opener from Hartson when he met a Sutton cross at the back post. Under the expert guidance of Underhill, Motherwell forced themselves back into the game through some tough play, which saw Henke limp off before half-time to be replaced by Smith.

Douglas was rising to the occasion, though, and pulled off a couple of good stops from Adam before being called upon to make a superb save from a spot kick after Mjallby was judged to have fouled his Motherwell opponent in the box. The award was soft enough to wipe your bottom on and typical of Underhill's blinkered refereeing, which also saw Larsson booked for diving. It should have been a stonewall Celtic penalty.

The second 45 saw Smith miss a sitter before a superb Thompson free kick sealed the points around the 70 minute mark. This shut up the incessant sectarian barracking coming from some of the home support, but resulted in Thompson going in the book for cupping his hands to his ears in front of them after he scored.

Nonetheless, this was a valuable three points at what can be a difficult venue.