SCOTTISH PREMIER LEAGUE Hibernian 0 Celtic 2:NEIL LENNON'S men could hardly have enjoyed a more leisurely opening to their Scottish Premier League campaign. Even at this formative juncture, they will enjoy a two-point title advantage, afforded to them by this win and Rangers' stumble in drawing at home to Hearts on Saturday.
At Easter Road, Celtic scored twice, had another goal wrongly disallowed and watched a penalty clawed away by Graham Stack. The fact the Hibernian goalkeeper’s opposite number, Lukasz Zaluska, did not have a save worthy of the name to make during this encounter illustrates how straightforward this was for the visitors.
The Celtic manager can take heart from a strong debut by the former Nottingham Forest centre-half Kelvin Wilson. “He was superb,” Lennon said. The 25-year-old’s maiden appearance was even more impressive given Wilson has played very little competitive football in the past 12 months partly because he signed a pre-contract agreement with the Scottish club.
The Celtic midfield, minus their suspended captain, Scott Brown, dominated for concerted spells.
In a bizarre situation, Lennon will now lead his team into four friendly matches before they next undertake SPL business, in Aberdeen on August 7th. Celtic head to Dublin for a tournament also involving Manchester City and Internazionale, while meetings with Wolverhampton Wanderers and Swansea City fall on either side of that. “Some of them are a little bit short (of match fitness), still, so I think the four games will benefit us provided we stay injury-free,” Lennon said.
Hibs seem to be cursed with goalkeeping problems. Stack played a key role in Celtic’s opener by palming a Kris Commons free-kick – which hardly looked troublesome – to the feet of Anthony Stokes. Stack apologised to his team-mates at half-time.
Mark Wilson was wrongly denied a rare goal, six minutes later, with replays showing the Celtic full back was in line with Victor Palsson rather than offside when played in by Gary Hooper.
By that stage, Hibs had seen Kelvin Wilson’s clearing header deny them their finest opportunity. One later, for Ivan Sproule, saw the same defender make an important saving tackle.
Ki Sung-yueng doubled Celtic’s advantage from long-range. Hooper was not so lethal watching his spot-kick tipped on to a post by Stack after Sproule had upended Emilio Izaguirre. “He (Hooper) is telling me it was a world-class save,” said Lennon. “I’m going to sign Matt Le Tissier.”
Celtic have endured a series of problems in converting penalties in recent times. On this occasion at least, there was never any question of that being significant.
Guardian Service
HIBERNIAN: Stack, Wotherspoon, O'Hanlon (Stephens 61), Hanlon, Booth, Murray (Crawford 85), Sproule, Palsson, Thornhill, Stevenson (Galbraith 70), O'Connor. Subs not used: Brown, Scott, Taggart, De Graaf. Booked: Booth.
CELTIC: Zaluska, Mark Wilson, Loovens, Kelvin Wilson, Izaguirre, Kayal, Ki, Ledley, Commons (Forrest 60), Hooper (Maloney 86), Stokes (Samaras 79). Subs not used: Cervi, Matthews, Mulgrew, Wanyama.
Referee: Iain Brines(Scotland).
