Craig Burley steered Celtic to the Scottish League Cup final with a powerful 70th-minute drive to break Dunfermline's stubborn resistance at Ibrox last night. The solitary strike was enough to present Celtic head coach Wim Jansen with a ticket to his first domestic final next month against either Aberdeen or Dundee United. The win provided sweet revenge for the last time the pair met - a 2-1 win at Parkhead for Dunfermline in mid-August - but much has changed at Celtic since then.
While last night's game, played in windswept conditions, struggled to provide the disappointing 27,796 crowd with much entertainment, it was a composed and professional Celtic display.
Their ninth victory in the last 11 unbeaten games rarely looked in doubt and it was fitting that Burley claimed the glory as the former Chelsea midfielder gave an assured performance.
Burley was unfortunate after 26 minutes, connecting perfectly with a fierce 25-yard effort which went narrowly wide of the upright with keeper Ian Westwater seemingly beaten.
On the half-hour, Westwater was at full stretch to turn a Regi Blinker drive over the crossbar and from the resulting corner did well to hold a shot from Jackie McNamara.
Few chances were created by either side, but Dunfermline will point to a glaring David Bingham miss on 43 minutes. Had the winger held his nerve when clean through, Celtic's frustration at not breaking the deadlock earlier might have got the better of them.
As Celtic moved up a gear in the second half, Alan Stubbs headed a Burley cross wide of the mark when well placed in the sixyard box. Then Westwater needed to be agile to deny McNamara but the keeper was beaten in the next attack as Henrik Larsson held the ball up well to allow Burley to shoot low to the net.
Dunfermline: Westwater, Shields, Millar (Miller 57), Tod, Barnett, Sergio Duarte (Den Bieman 82), Moore, Curran, Smith, French, Bingham (Britton 71). Booked: Millar.
Celtic: Gould, Boyd, Mahe, McNamara, Rieper, Stubbs, Larsson, Burley, Donnelly, O'Donnell, Blinker (Thom 88). Subs not used: Hannah, Annoni. Goal: Burley 70. Att: 27,796.
Referee: W Young (Clarkston).
