Fir Park fortress repels Celts again
● Champions’ bid to return to top of table thwarted by Johnson’s strike
There is nothing Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers has seemed unable to do in Scottish football in the past year. That period has brought an unprecedented double treble and, in recent days, a seventh straight domestic honour. Winning at Fir Park, however, has proved much more difficult.
Having drawn both matches at Motherwell’s home last season, the champions looked to have cracked one of their toughest nuts when, leading 1-0 through an early Ryan Christie goal, the final two minutes of normal time rolled around. However, Stephen Robinson’s grafting side refused to let the odds – and several setbacks along the way – prove fatal to their hopes of an unlikely point.
Danny Johnson ensured their valour was rewarded when he produced an imperious strike in the closing seconds. The forward cut inside from the right and guided a low, diagonal drive into the far corner from 14 yards.
It’s said that 1-0 is the most dangerous of scorelines but, when Motherwell struck, the travelling support was declaring “we shall not be moved” in expectation of their team going top of the league courtesy of an Aberdeen win away to Rangers.
Johnson stifled that chant in their throats and his impact left Celtic below new Premiership pacesetters Kilmarnock.
An incredible scenario when the gulf between Rodgers’ team and the rest in Scottish football tends not just to exhibit itself in trophies.
Teamsheets can prove telling too. A matter of days after a Betfred Cup success which was a seventh straight domestic honour, Rodgers was able to make seven changes to his starting line-up. In itself, perhaps not arresting. What certainly proved so was that it left his Fir Park counterpart Robinson pondering whether the rejigged side was actually stronger than the one fielded at Hampden.
With James Forrest rested and Dedryck Boyata lost to injury, Jonny Hayes and Jozo Simunovic were drafted in as replacements. They would hardly be placed in the same bracket. But giving captain Scott Brown a first start since October, and preferring Olivier Ntcham, Leigh Griffiths and Craig Gordon to Scott Sinclair, Odsonne Edouard and Scott Bain would hardly be expected to prefigure a drop-off in capability.
Once the inevitably fullblooded proceedings began, it was enforced shuffling in the ranks of the home side that claimed attention. Losing to Livingston at the weekend on the back of thumping Aberdeen indicated the wildly contrasting fortunes being experienced by the Lanarkshire side.
Inside the first five minutes, the portents suggested a downer of an evening, with captain Peter Hartley hirpling off to be replaced by Andy Rose. Little more than a quarter of an hour in, they had lost a second player to injury when Liam Donnelly had to give way to Adam Livingstone.
These serious blows were followed up by a further punch to the gut – and the player who administered it was fairly predictable.
There have been many career turnarounds over which to marvel across the years in Scottish football, but it is difficult to think of any to match the astonishing gear shift that Ryan Christie has achieved. The Betfred Cup final match winner appears to now possess such a Midas touch, the golden-plated finish he forged to put his team ahead after 13 minutes seemed of a standard hallmark.
The reality was it was nothing less than another exquisite piece of driving forward play and a delightful touch.
Kieran Tierney provided the set-up with a piercing run down the left before sliding a ball inside. Christie seized on it like a bloodhound on the scent, slicing through the home backline by controlling the ball with his right before caressing a left foot effort wide of Mark Gillespie and into the net.
After Motherwell then battled back, and demonstrated an ability to provide Celtic with uncomfortable moments without ever cutting them open, it was Christie’s wiles six minutes from half-time that should have offered the platform for Rodgers’ men to make their lead unassailable.
The Scotland international hustled his way to the byline, where he was surrounded by claret and amber jerseys. He stood strong at the edge of the box as he attempted to wriggle his way free, only for Rose to prove clumsy and bar ge him over. Referee Kevin Clancy was decisive in blowing for a penalty, and the protests from a delegation of Motherwell players were half-hearted.
A second penalty for Celtic inside four days, it didn’t not share the unmerited nature of the spot-kick that came their way against Aberdeen at the national stadium. It did though prove to be just as insignificant, however, with Griffiths’ evening exemplified by Gillespie superbly throwing himself to his left to deny the striker, before clawing away the follow-up as it looked as if Griffiths was homing in to make amends.
The harum-scarum nature of the tussle in the first period gave way to a second period that was more mundane. The arrival of Scott Sinclair in place of Ntcham, who had never looked at ease in a wide left role, allowed Celtic to raid regularly down the left, but Robinson’s men stood firm.
They never allowed themselves to be counted out, with the switch of Edouard for Griffiths and later Tom Rogic for Hayes, not providing the visitors with the impetus to remove the shackles. Such endeavour brought a dramatic climax.
And that most dangerous of scorelines proved exactly that for Celtic when the courageous Motherwell men forced an opportunity from a diagonal ball that Johnston needed no second invitation to bury.
In that instant the triumphant cries of “we shall not be moved” from the Celtic support fell silent.
MOTHERWELL: Gillespie; Tait, Aldred, Hartley (Rose 6), Donnelly (Livingstone, 14) (Main 69); Grimshaw, Mchugh, Turnbull, Campbell, Johnson, Samson. Subs not used: Ferguson, Bowman, Bigirimana, Rodriguez Gorrin.
CELTIC: Gordon; Gamboa, Simunovic, Benkovic, Tierney; Brown; Hayes (Rogic 81), Christie, Mcgregor, Ntcham (Sinclair 46); Griffiths (Edouard 65). Subs not used: Bain, Izaguirre, Hendry, Forrest.