Celtic laboured their way to an unconvincing 1-0 win over Kilmarnock at Rugby Park this evening to maintain their 100% record in their defence of the SPL title. Henrik Larsson was the saviour yet again as Martin O'Neill's treble winners were matched in every department apart from the crucial task of converting possession into goals.
The visitors had to wait until the 76th to find the breakthrough, which emanated from a Chris Sutton through ball, and Larsson, the European Golden Boot holder, made no mistake from inside the box with ex-Celtic 'keeper Gordon Marshall exposed.
New signing John Hartson was given an earlier than expected debut when Bobby Petta had to retire with a hamstring problem after just 19 minutes, and Sutton dropped into the midfield to allow the former Coventry man assume a position alongside Larsson up front.
The big Welshman won his first challenge, a header, and then blazed a wild volley wide before upping the controversy stakes with a wild corner flag challenge on Chris Innes that went unpunished. Celtic enjoyed the better of the first half exchanges without converting their superiority into goals, with Hartson guilty of blazing over after being teed up with the goal at his mercy by Valgaeren.
After the break Kilmarnock began to dominate, but again they failed to convert that zeal into a chance. Ngonge almost managed it, using his pace to set up a lightning counter following a corner, but when he attempted to put Cocard clear he lost his footing at the vital moment and the chance was gone.
A draw would have been no mean achievement and not unjust for the hapless Killies, but few sides have an answer to the Sutton-Larsson equation and with Hartson an added wild card it remains to be seen who can stop the rampant Celtic machine.
Filed by Shane Murray
