Premier League Sunday 22nd August 2004

Inverness CT 1

Celtic 3

0:1 Hartson 25
1:1 43 pen
1:2 Petrov 67
1:3 Hartson 75

Att: 8,500

MIB: Douglas McDonald

Celtic: Marshall Balde Varga Valgaeren Agathe Lennon Petrov Thompson Wallace Camara Hartson
subs
Pearson for Wallace 80
Lambert for Petrov 80
Laursen for Balde 84

Three points won and back to the top of the league, so you'd have to concede it was a profitable afternoon, but this wasn't a particularly enjoyable game.

Celtic made hard of work of despatching the hairy-arsed Highlanders, even when they were reduced to ten men. The red card incident after fifteen minutes was a bit harsh on the Caley player, given Lennon's involvement a few moments earlier, but it most probably wouldn't have affected the outcome. What it will do is crank up the volume a bit on the verbals around the country and provide more evidence for the unhunged element among the huns (ie most of them) that Scottish officialdom is controlled by agents of the Vatican and the Dublin government

. Lennon's aberration shouldn't be allowed to detract from Hartson's contribution. His double brought his Celtic tally of league goals to fifty in the space of a mere 76 games. That's a better strike rate than Henke. The Huns must be feeling like that guy who knocked back the chance of becoming the Beatles' manager.

Sandwiched in between BBJ's goals were a penalty for Inverness (scored) another for Celtic (missed) and a cracking strike by Petrov from the edge of the box. Bobo's back, but Sutton, Varga and McNamara are doubts for the coming OF match. The sooner Juninho gets here the better.