SPL Saturday August 6th

Celtic 2

Dundee United 0

1:0 Hartson 37
2:0 Beattie 88

Att: 56,532

MIB: Ian Brines

Celtic
Boruc Telfer Balde McManus Camara Petrov Lennon Thompson Nakamura Zurawski Hartson
subs
Maloney for Zurawski 64
Beattie for Nakamura 84

Are things beginning to look up? A clean sheet in the league, a recognisable team shape, the ball being played along the ground and the young players really looking the part. Add to that one of the most impressive debut any of us can remember for a long time and this was a pretty good day in paradise.

On the up side the midfield is beginning to look like a midfield again, the first time we've had one for almost a full season. Lennon looks as fit as he ever has, Petrov - after finally having a close season - is looking good, Thompson... I'll get back to you on that one.

Nakamura could be the creative player we've been so obviously missing since Lubo hung up his cape. The most obvious change in that area of the park was the number of times Celtic played one touch football. Not only that, they did it well. The only let down was the score line; this was 2:0 going on 8:0. If only Shaun Maloney could finish, although he did (again) raise the tempo of the game and produce a positive impact on proceedings, linking up well with Nakamura.

Having said that the midfield was looking better the first goal came after Camara blindly punted the ball down the pitch. The sequence of events from that point went something like; defender, Hartson, ball, candy, baby, goal. Simple really.

The United cross bar took a bit of a beating in the second half, and Celtic had a wee scare when Balde appeared to kill one the United players in our box, but even they felt it wasn't a penalty.

The points were wrapped up by young hero number two at the moment, Craig Beattie, who nearly uprooted the goals with a volley in the last few minutes.

Hats off to WGS for a decent first home showing, If this is how he intends us to play then it can only be good.

Oh and hats off to the idiot currently working as picture editor of the programme for his centre page poster. If this is how he intends to operate for the rest of the season then that can only be confusing.