Motherwell 0 Celtic 2: Martin O'Neill paid tribute to Rab Douglas, the goalkeeper he recently restored to the team, as Celtic earned a hard-fought victory to remain firm favourites for the title.
The Scotland goalkeeper, blamed for the loss of a recent goal against Dundee after similar accusations against Magnus Hedman for one conceded in the Champions League in Lyon that led to his demotion, enjoyed this clean sheet, ensured by his first-half save from a controversial penalty which was the game's pivotal moment.
It came on a day when it was suggested the 31-year-old Douglas wanted to leave Celtic and O'Neill admitted: "I was a bit surprised his agent put that out.
"I have no wish to let players go, although I am sympathetic to Rab because of his international situation. He wants to be number one and re-establish himself and today I was absolutely delighted with him. His penalty save was the key moment and helped us to three important points."
With Douglas's help Celtic, who have appealed against Neil Lennon's two-game European ban by UEFA, bounced back from their League Cup defeat against Hibernian on a ground where they lost valuable league points last season.
Lennon was man of the match while John Hartson and Alan Thompson, with a superb free-kick, scored the goals that see O'Neill's side go into Christmas with an eight-point lead over Rangers.
The penalty followed an innocuous Johan Mjallby challenge on David Clarkson after 29 minutes, when Celtic were leading 1-0 through Hartson's goal after three minutes.
"I didn't need television replays to know it wasn't a penalty," insisted O'Neill. "It was a poor decision." Fortunately for Celtic, Douglas saved Derek Adams's spot kick.
Even Motherwell's manager Terry Butcher agreed that the referee John Underhill's decision was wrong.
Celtic left Lanarkshire deeply unimpressed with the performance of the referee, who also incurred their wrath by booking Henrik Larsson, clearly still suffering from the back injury he picked up against Hibernian on Thursday night, for diving.
Still, it all added up to marvellous entertainment, especially in the first half as Motherwell tried to bounce back from the loss of Hartson's close-range goal. Scott Leitch got a slight deflection to Chris Sutton's cross, after Thompson's pass, and the Welshman arrived at the back post to jab the ball home from two yards.
Adams fired one fierce free- kick against a post and sent another skidding inches wide before his penalty miss to leave Celtic, who replaced the ailing Larsson after 40 minutes with Jamie Smith, happy to hear the half-time whistle.
By then Underhill had further upset everyone by booking Celtic's centre back Bobo Balde and Larsson, along with Motherwell's Keith Asley.
The second half could not quite live up to the standards of the first mainly because Celtic returned to the fray better organised and more resilient.
Smith missed a great chance after 55 minutes but a quarter of an hour later the match was killed off as a contest. Stephen Craigan was booked for a foul on Stilian Petrov and Motherwell's punishment was doubled as Thompson fired home the resultant free-kick.
There was no way back after that for Butcher's team, although Douglas produced another good save to deny Adams again.
Celtic will play first division side Ross County at Parkhead in the third round of the Scottish Cup on the weekend of January 10th.
Yesterday's draw also sees Rangers travelling to play Hibernian. Dundee United will take on Dunfermline away while Aberdeen will play host to Dundee in the third all-Premier Division tie of the draw.
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