Celtic 2-0 Motherwell: Celtic show stamina for victory

Celtic 2

Hartley 45, McDonald 70

Motherwell 0

THERE may be many flaws in the make-up of Gordon Strachan's Celtic. Plenty of English observers who watched their every-sinew-straining exertions merely to hold out in desperate fashion against a rampant Manchester United on Wednesday night would reel them off for you. But Celtic's application and stamina makes them a marvel, in a Scottish context at least.

That the same 10 outfield players, only three days after running themselves into submission, could suck so deeply on their lungs and prove too physically strong, too battle-hardened for a Motherwell team who have bustle and bite made a seemingly ordinary victory an impressive declaration. In the past two months Celtic have found another level and yesterday they moved five points clear of playing-today Rangers without half a dozen of their integral performers.

Admittedly, referee Dougie McDonald would appear to have aided their cause greatly by sending off David Clarkson in the 58th minute. The striker earned a red card for catching Paul Caddis in the face with his palm to fend off the Celtic substitute as he tugged him back. Most observers, including opponent Paul Hartley, questioned whether there was any intent and so the decision. Then a goal down to Hartley's effort on the stroke of half-time that brought him a first goal for the club at Celtic Park, Mark McGhee's side seem to accept their fate from that point.

It was sealed, fittingly, by Scott McDonald in the 71st minute. He has practically been a one-man strikeforce of late as teenager Cillian Sheridan learns his trade beside him. The Australian is now proving a constant menace, as he showed with his glorious midweek strike. Nothing much looked on when the ball broke to him 25 yards out, but he bagged his second goal of the week by squeezing a low shot through space that didn't exist, accuracy rather than power the reason it ended up nestling in the far right hand corner of Graeme Smith's net.

There may have been a morning-after-the-night-before feel to proceedings, but beforehand the encounter enjoyed a billing in the front as well as the back pages of the press. The wearing of poppies by Celtic players in the weekend of Remembrance Sunday provoked outrage from some fringe supporters' groups firmly in the wing of Celtic equals Irish Catholic club and must therefore be pro-IRA and anti-British imperialism. They made plain they would protest but in the end it was their protest that was plain.

It amounted to a group of about 40, mainly youths, gathering in the car park pre-match to distribute leaflets that chuntered on about the insensitivity to the club's Irish fan base of "endorsing a celebration of the British Army" and urged a walk out of the stadium after 10 minutes. And, following a minute's applause enthusiastically endorsed, that is what the 40 supporters did at the appointed time, a couple waving tricolours as they exited from a corner of the east stand.

Save for a few boos, home supporters were otherwise too busy fretting about the obvious flatness of their team to bother with the early departures. The arena was so subdued it was incredible to believe it contained probably about 50,000-plus of the same fans who made it so electrifying in midweek. To the extent then that Dr Frankenstein would have been able to channel the energy and succeed in any reanimation programme.

The jolt that brought Celtic to life was the early intent of Motherwell. The visitors initially looked in the mood to capitalise of the mammoth effort expended by the Scottish champions against United. McGhee would surely have used Celtic's starting XI as a motivating tool in his team talk. Strachan admitted the other day he "was running out of bodies" and would be forced to play the same players who had nothing left to give at the end of their midweek mission. His only change from that encounter was, predictably, injury-enforced, Mark Brown taking over in goal from Artur Boruc, who will be out for two weeks following a knee operation.

Brown's first action was almost picking the ball out of the net after he was beaten by a John Sutton header from a Steven Hammell corner in the ninth minute. The keeper was spared by the presence of Shaun Maloney on the line though there was some debate about whether the midfielder was behind the line when heading clear. Within seconds, Scott Brown had fired an effort against the post. Thereafter, the teams traded openings, Chris Porter wasteful with a free header, McDonald forcing a good block from Smith and Sheridan twice lacking the conviction when finding himself in good positions.

The young Irishman, though, had the presence of mind to pick out Hartley on the edge of the box after the ball had bounced around the Motherwell box in the last minute of the first period. It was a intervention that paved the way for the turning point.

Because Hartley chesting the ball down and arrowing a bumping low drive past Smith gave the home side the boost that allowed them to produce the sort of composed, efficient second half display that was enough to quash any prospects of a Motherwell comeback.

So in charge were Celtic by the end that Strachan felt sufficiently at ease to send on the club's other Japanese player, Koki Mizuno, for a debut. The midfielder was only given two minutes after replacing McDonald, but he used them well with a couple of runs and a shot that drifted just over.

There is nothing in the way of drifting from Celtic, meanwhile.

MAN OF THE MATCH

He was the driving force and proved the key with a first strike at Celtic Park in his near two years with the club. Paul Hartley was easily the most important player.

QUICK FACT

The Champions League may not be proving particularly profitable for Celtic but since losing to Motherwell in April, Gordon Strachan's side have played 21 games domestically, and only failed to win two.

TALKING POINT

The red card for David Clarkson some felt was on the harsh side. Off the park, the protests from around 40 Celtic supporters over the team's poppy-wearing will exercise many phone-ins and hotlines for weeks.

Nakamura and Maloney join lengthy Parkhead injury list

HE CAN take satisfaction from his team on the park but it is Gordon Strachan's "team" in the treatment room that is causing anxiety. Speaking after the 2-0 win over Motherwell, the Celtic manager revealed Shunsuke Nakamura and Shaun Maloney had been added to his casualty list.

The midfielders join Artur Boruc, Aiden McGeady, Georgios Samaras, Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink, Glen Loovens, Marc Crosas, Chris Killen, Paddy McCourt and Paul McGowan in the personnel likely to be unavailable for Wednesday night's hosting of Kilmarnock.

Nakamura sustained a knee knock in training on Thursday, reputedly following a tackle by coach Neil Lennon. "He wanted to train again on Friday but we thought we better get a scan and when the doc came back with the results it was not good news," Strachan said.

"It is his left knee and he could be out for a couple of weeks. I think we are now up to a full team of injuries… It is not ideal but the rest of us just have to get on with it."

Maloney limped off with a dead leg during the Motherwell game. "We tried to keep him jogging about at half-time but he couldn't get going in the second half," explained Strachan.

Celtic got on with it yesterday after a start during which he admitted "you could see both the crowd and ourselves were tired after Manchester United".

Motherwell manager Mark McGhee admitted his team could have been better. "It was no hard lucky story," he said. "Essentially we were not good enough to beat Celtic after I came here thinking we could win."

McGhee, however, was in no doubt that David Clarkson was the victim of a hard-luck story when he was red-carded after his hand made contact with the face of Paul Caddis.

"The referee (Dougie McDonald] knows the player and knows he's not a lad who is going to do that and knows he's not stupid," McGhee said. "He just used his arm to fend Caddis off and unfortunately caught him."