Dundee 0
Celtic 2
League (Premier Division)

Match Report

Newspaper extract from The Courier.

Between 7 and 7.30 p.m. on Saturday I watched the Clones Cyclone, Barry McGuigan, blow away the challenge of Bernard Taylor for the world featherweight title.

Between 3.10 and 3.45, also on Saturday, I saw the Celtic Cyclone blow away Dundee in a Premier League game at Dens Park.

The pattern was the same for both winners. A slow start, a steady build-up, then the killer blows-in McGuigan's case with punches, in Celtic's by goals.

After the Dens game, Dundee manager Archie Knox described himself as "disappointed, because I thought we would do a lot better than we did." He reckoned if Dundee had got to half-time without losing a goal, things would have been different.

In my view there was no way Dundee WERE going to get to half- time in that condition because, after ten opening minutes when they looked at least the equal of the green-and-whites, Celtic upped the pace, Paul McStay, among others, started to control proceedings, and the game homed-in on Dundee keeper Bobby Geddes.

In 31 minutes he did well to get to a vicious Aitken shot, but the ball broke to McClair, who promptly put it in the net. There were Dundee claims that the striker handled, but they were ignored.

Just on half-time, Mo Johnston, looking like he is getting back to his best, took advantage of a mid-air Glennie-Duffy collision to chip over Geddes for Celtic's second.

It had been 35 minutes of superb entertainment, with Celtic

looking the best team I have seen this season and Dundee proving, even though mostly on the receiving end, that they are a pushover for no one nowadays.

The second-half was almost academic, Dundee probed at a much more subdued Celtic, but never developed the midfield variety or the forward drive to break down an Aitken-inspired defence. The controlled fury that had been Celtic first-half switched to a more leisurely approach and though there were chances at both ends there was a feeling no more goals were coming.

"They had," said Archie Knox afterwards, "more ambition than us. That goal before half-time, when we committed hari-kari, knocked us for six.

"I said to the players yesterday and repeated it today, that we had to keep McClair and Johnston quiet. What happened? They got the Celtic goals!"

Celtic manager Davie Hay described the Johnston goal as "special" and the first-half football Celtic played after the first 10 minutes as "as good as we have produced-but there is a long way to go.

Shannon, for a foul on McClair and Hendry, for talking out of turn, were booked in a game which never boiled over, though always keenly contested. Jim Smith, with a head injury and Graham Harvey, cheered off by the Dundee fans, were replaced by Hendry and Jack in the second-half.

Murdo McLeod suffered an injury to his shin which required two stitches and was replaced by McInally for Celtic.

My man of the match was Danny McGrain, the Celtic captain. "Methusala" was how a Celtic fan behind me described him, showing a commendable grasp of the Bible. Mind you, Danny hasn't quite reached Methusala's 969 years... in fact he looked more like a teenager trying to prove himself and succeeding.