We were completely outgunned in the first half. Celtic enjoyed seemingly endless possession in our half of the pitch and there was much relief in the home support that only one goal had been lost in the first 45 minutes. While the second period was more of a contest, an equaliser never looked likely.
Joe Wark remembered
The surprising news before kick-off was that Lasley, McDonald and Ainsworth were relegated to the bench to make way for Laing, Johnson and Fletcher. After a generous round of applause from both sets of fans to mark the passing of Joe Wark, Motherwell set the game in motion facing the South Stand.
Laing took up station ahead of the back four with Moult and Johnson on the wings. Fletcher had few chances to influence the play though he did manage a half hit shot after five minutes. Celtic were soon in control and they soon found a successful route on our right side. Izaguirre reached our line and found Commons with the cut back. Ripley did well to block the shot but the rebound fell kindly for Ciftci and he converted for what turned out to be the winner.
Commons had Ripley at full stretch to tip a 30 yard effort to safety and soon rattled the bar from a 22 yard free kick. But we survived thanks to a combination of decent defending and poor finishing. Laing move upfield a bit to try to stem the source of the opposition attacks but wave after wave continued.
Our use of the ball was poor and we were unable to build any threatening play. The second half brought a brighter attitude to match the disappearance of the mist and the appearance of the sun. Ainsworth and McDonald gave the Celtic defence some problems when they came on for Moult and Fletcher and Thomas did himself no harm when he showed off some neat footwork in the closing 20 minutes.
Although the game was more evenly balanced we had to have a couple of favourable decisions to escape strong penalty claims and while there was always an outside chance of a sneaky goal earning an ill-deserved point the travelling support was able to celebrate their win.
After the match the manager agreed that he had learned a lot from the game and stated that he had no complaints about the effort from his charges. He’ll know the squad better as he prepares for next week’s trip to Pittodrie.
Motherwell 0 Celtic 1
Attendane 8,888
Team:Ripley, Grimshaw, Laing, McManus, Pearson, Fletcher (McDonald 66), Johnson(Thomas 72), Chalmers, Kennedy, Law, Moult (Ainsworth 53)