SPL Sunday March 6th

Hibernian 1

Celtic 3

0:1 Petrov 5
0:2 Hartson 31
0:3 Bellamy 69
1:3 Beuzelin 90

Att: 15,787

MIB: Kenny Clark

Celtic:
Douglas McNamara Balde Varga Laursen Petrov Lennon Sutton Thompson Bellamy Hartson
subs
McGeady for Sutton 32
Beattie for Hartson 74
Fernandez for Thompson 81

An outstanding performance in Auld Reekie saw Celtic produce their finest league form of the season, with Bellamy in particular, in rampant form. After the 10 dollar fake that was Camara, CB looks the real McCoy and the Celtic beast has new teeth.

Mowbray’s young blades were hammered on the Easter Rd anvil by a newly galvanized Celtic team within 5 minutes. The opener from Petrov was followed on the half hour mark by a second from Hartson, stretching to meet a Sutton cross. This made up for some classic Sieve defending, with Bobo presenting Hibs with a gift of a pass back that should have led to a goal. What goes through Bobo’s head on such occasions is open to debate, but puffs of sawdust and bits of tumbleweed littered the ground around him as he made the pass.

Celtic were sublime and should have run up a cricket score with Hartson and McGeady missing fine chances. Despite a ‘tousy’ response from a panicking Hibs that was casually ignored by MIB Kenny Clark - Bellamy and Mc Geady in particular were buffeted about the park without Clark showing even a yellow card until late in the game - Bellamy still did the business with a superb solo effort six minutes from time.

A consolation from Beuzilin did little to detract from the result that should put Celtic back on course for the title.

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Hmm, this looks better. Celtic could have won this game by a good few more goals, but the standard of performance was excellent. It's no coincidence that Petrov is now scoring after being restored to the middle, or that we look a hell of a lot better with a bit of pace up front.

The only cloud on the horizon was the withdrawal of Sutton with a hamstring problem. At that point in the game his contribution had been two crosses, producing two goals.

Bellamy certainly made his mark in the second half, scoring a nice goal and starting a not so nice fight, his second since he got here. And guess what? It's all his own fault. Well at least it takes the heat off Lennon.