Motherwell 1-2 Celtic: Celtic use their heads to discover a smoother route to goal at Fir Park

Published on Sunday 4 May 2008 21:40

THOSE who argue that, on paper, Celtic should beat Motherwell seven days a week and twice on Sundays may have a point. Paper would almost certainly make a more reliable playing surface than the corrugated patch that currently passes for one at Fir Park.

This observation should not be mistaken for a suggestion that visitors to Motherwell are unfairly disadvantaged. A pitch that is virtually unplayable – the ball constantly bobbling, as opposed to rolling, making instant control extremely difficult – is of no assistance to the home side, either.

Indeed, Mark McGhee's often inventive and skilful team's prospects of securing third place in the Premier League are more likely to be dimmed, rather than enhanced, every time they appear at their own ground. In the three-match series they have played with Celtic over the past month, their two defeats have been sustained at home, their victory achieved on the pristine turf at Parkhead.

The inevitable consequence of any match in the conditions that prevail in Lanarkshire is the impossibility of distinguishing one team from the other, in terms of superiority in style and effectiveness. Gordon Strachan, concisely pointed up the unique experience by referring to a trip to Fir Park as "a time for commonsense football".

The Celtic manager, clearly relieved at the goals from Scott McDonald and substitute Georgios Samaras which overtook Chris Porter's opener for Motherwell and kept alive their chances of retaining the championship, expanded: "People often talk about how the game has to be played with beautiful passing and creativity. Well, there are times when it doesn't.

"A day like this, on a pitch like that, is one of them. It just has to be commonsense football. And, for us at this stage, it really is about getting three points. We managed that because I'm lucky enough to have players on the bench who can give us something when they come on. They not only have the ability, but, even more important, the desire."

Strachan was not telling McGhee anything about his ground he did not already know. The Motherwell manager acknowledged the difficulties after a match from which his own team might just as easily have emerged victorious.

"It was a game where the conditions just had to be coped with, and both teams did that, and I think it was quite entertaining," said McGhee, surely contradicting the majority view of a contest that was almost unremittingly tiresome.

McGhee was clearly unhappy at the award of the corner kick to Celtic which led to the winning goal, but probably even less pleased at his own players' failure to defend it. Barry Robson's delivery from the right passed an entire posse of claret and amber shirts before reaching Samaras near the far post, the towering striker seeming to allow the ball simply to roll off his head and over the line from only about three yards out.

"I'm quite adamant it wasn't a corner," McGhee said of referee Steve Conroy's judgment. "But it wasn't a decisive mistake by the referee. I mean, it's not as if he gave a goal that shouldn't have stood or ordered a man off. The corner kick could have been defended much better, as could Celtic's first goal.

"Brian McLean (the Motherwell right-back] is six-foot-three and Scott McDonald is so short, yet the wee guy got in the header. Brian should have done better with that."

McDonald's equaliser, just a minute after Porter had reached a deadly cross from McLean on the right, was the product, in fact, of the most coherent and incisive move of the match. Aiden McGeady took possession on the left and, typically, was immediately surrounded by three challengers.

His release was Paul Hartley, to whom he played the ball back. The midfielder swung it out to Shunsuke Nakamura on the right, his quick cross perfectly measured for McDonald, who somehow managed to outjump McLean and head past Luke Daniels, the 20-year-old goalkeeper who was making his debut for Motherwell.

The home team, to which McGhee had made five changes for various reasons, were the equal of the winners in every respect except enjoying the break that could have decided the match in their favour, or at least allowed them to take one point.

Their 4-3-3 formation was designed not just to attack, but, as McGhee confirmed afterwards, to defend as far upfield as possible, preventing the Celtic goalkeeper, Artur Boruc, for example, from throwing the ball to his full-backs to start the visitors' forward thrusts.

Celtic were, indeed, the beneficiaries of the decision to award them the telling corner kick, but Motherwell were given the same service in injury time, when Porter clearly headed the ball for a goal kick. The difference was that the home team failed to exploit the referee's error.

On being told that Motherwell were "furious" over the circumstances in which Samaras scored the winner, Strachan did not allow the interrogator even to finish his question.

"Well, I'm still furious over the goal we didn't get at Inverness earlier in the season," he said, "and I'm still furious over a decision at Kilmarnock a while back. Yeah, we're all furious."

It was a put-down that seemed to have been gestating in Strachan through the past three weeks, when Celtic have benefited from a number of incidences of good fortune that have helped sustain their five-match winning streak and, more significantly, maintained the advantage at the top of the league which is a challenge to Rangers in these closing stages of the campaign.

Man of the match: Gary Caldwell (Celtic)

Far from a regular winner of the accolade, the Celtic defender on this occasion was a composed and reliable presence beside the often erratic Bobo Balde. He was also one of very few able to control and distribute the ball with any kind of conviction.