Sport

Celtic are staging a mini fightback

Celtic 2 Dunfermline 1: WHEN 3-0 behind at Kilmarnock last month, Neil Lennon surely could not have envisaged this scenario

EWAN MURRAY at Celtic Park
Thu Nov 24 2011 - 00:00

Celtic 2 Dunfermline 1:WHEN 3-0 behind at Kilmarnock last month, Neil Lennon surely could not have envisaged this scenario. To the Celtic manager's credit, he has presided over a mini fightback in the SPL title race.

A home victory when St Mirren visit Celtic Park on Saturday will narrow Rangers’ advantage at the top to four points, before the champions make their own visit to Kilmarnock. Celtic and Lennon have at least scrambled, and picked up form, to the extent where things are interesting again.

Lennon admitted before kick-off that a plan to bring Gordon Strachan back to Celtic in an advisory capacity had failed eight weeks ago.

“Gordon is someone I respect totally and he wasn’t averse to the idea, but it never materialised,” said the manager.

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Dunfermline arrived in Glasgow having conceded 29 goals in 14 league outings. Only financial warnings and cut-backs, ominously for a club who should be profiting from new-found SPL funding, have masked Dunfermline’s defensive troubles.

Within six minutes, that generosity was highlighted. A stray pass from the visitors’ Paul Willis went straight to Gary Hooper, who lashed a low finish past Paul Gallacher.

James Forrest notched Celtic’s second. Gallacher parried an Anthony Stokes shot to the feet of Hooper, who laid the ball back to his young team-mate.

Ki Sung-yueng became the latest Celtic player to miss a penalty, 11 minutes after the re-start. The South Korean blazed wide after Paul Burns upended Forrest – outside the area, Dunfermline claimed. Stokes was perhaps more annoyed than Ki, having wanted to take the spot kick.

A fine shot by Andrew Barrowman reduced Celtic’s advantage with a few minutes to go, but, crucially for Lennon, no further damage was inflicted upon his team and they go into Saturday’s game further invigorated.

CELTIC: Forster, Matthews, Majstorovic, Wanyama, Ledley, Forrest, Kayal, Ki, Commons (McCourt 46), Stokes (Samaras 80), Hooper. Subs not Used: Zaluska,El Kaddouri,McGeough,Blackman,Fraser. Booked: Forster.

DUNFERMLINE: Gallacher, Dowie, Potter, Keddie, Graham, Ryan Thomson (Boyle 59), Mason, Willis (Cardle 60), Burns, Barrowman, Kirk (Buchanan 64). Subs not used: Smith,McDougall,Byrne,Young.

Referee: Bobby Madden (Scotland).