Melbourne Victory 0 - 1 Celtic: Celts end Australian tour on a high

A second-half goal from substitute Scott Brown was enough to give Neil Lennon's side their second victory Down Under.

Celtic manager Neil lennon welcomed the positive end to the tour, which got off to a poor start with a 1-0 defeat by Central Coast Mariner in the opening game and was followed up by a 2-0 success over Perth Glory. Lennon confirmed after yesterday's match that club captain Brown is very much part of his future plans.

"We haven't sat down with him yet, but he knows what we think of him as a player and we're hoping the negotiations won't be a problem," Lennon said. "He's an important player for us, as are a few others, but in his case particularly we would like to get him bedded down, get him settled. He's got a year left on his contract so it's important we can negotiate that pretty quickly."

The Parkhead club, skippered by their Greece striker Georgios Samaras as a tribute to the big Greek community in the city, were worthy of their win in what was another highly-competitive friendly match. Had it not been for home goalkeeper Tando Velaphi, the margin of victory for Lennon's side would have been greater.

In front of a crowd of 20,794, many of whom were supporting the Glasgow side, the 24-year-old pulled off a string of fine saves to thwart the Hoops, only to be beaten by Brown's 78th-minute drive.

He twice denied Samaras in the first half and his save from Charlie Mulgrew's free-kick just after the break, when he tipped the ball over the bar, was particularly impressive.

Samaras then slipped in Paddy McCourt on the left and the Irishman skipped past one defender before his low shot from an angle was turned away by the Melbourne keeper. That let-off seemed to spark the home side into action again.

Daniel Allsopp passed up two decent chances, including a near-post header with which he should have opened the scoring.

He did better shortly after in setting up Archie Thompson with a perfectly-weighted through ball but he screwed his shot wide for a throw-in.

Celtic responded positively again with Kris Commons picking out McCourt at the far post with a wonderful delivery but the former Derry City player was unable to keep his header down.

Lennon's side dominated the closing stages. Striker Gary Hooper's low cross was almost turned into his own net by Adrian Leijer, before Anthony Stokes - on for McCourt - drove into the side-netting.

Hooper was then unable to get on the end of Samaras' inviting pass which would have surely resulted in a goal had he connected.

However, with 12 minutes remaining the Parkhead men were rewarded for their efforts.

Commons took a quick corner and found Brown, on for Beram Kayal, at the edge of the area and his shot took a slight deflection before finding its way in to the corner of the net. There was still time for Stokes to hit the bar with a free-kick, while Daryl Murphy, who had replaced Hooper, also came close on two occasions before the final whistle.

Lennon was happy with the victory, and in particular how his side had carved out the goal that made the difference.

"We haven't done a lot of training together but Kris and Scott used initiative and imagination and it was a really good goal," said Lennon. "We've given (Brown) the responsibility of being the captain and he's matured into that role very, very well.

"His consistency last season was excellent, he was a huge player for us last year and considering he is only 26, he is not even at his peak yet so his best years are still to come."

Melbourne Victory: Velaphi; Foschini, Vargas (Franjic 45), Leijer, Ferreira; Pondeljak (Solorzano 45), Broxham, Brebner (Celeski 56), Rojas; Thompson (Jeggo 76) Allsopp, (Lokvanicic 81). Subs not used: Dowisha, O'Dea, Ansell.

Celtic: Zaluska; Matthews (Cha 79), Majstorovic, K Wilson (Ledley 73), Mulgrew; Commons, Kayal (Brown 58) Ki, McCourt (Stokes 66), Hooper (Murphy 79) Samaras. Subs not used: Cervi, Towell.

Attendance: 20,794.