By Paul Marshall
September 21 2003

Celtic won 3 - 0 courtesy of goals from Henrik Larsson, Chris Sutton and Shaun Maloney to defeat a Motherwell side who had put up a brave fight and even went in at half time level. Terry Butcher was without injury victim Alex Burns and had the pint sized striker been playing Motherwell could have snatched something after creating loads of chances before Celtic opened the scoring.


Steven Craig replaced Alex Burns in the starting eleven but the winger failed to make an impact.


The big talking point in the first half came after 35 minutes when Hanrik Larsson was booked for diving. Celtic fans thought referee Ian Brines had awarded their side a penalty when Larsson went through one on one with goalkeeper Gordon Marshall, the swede went down and was booked for his effort.




200 well fans !

Two minutes after the restart Henrik Larsson opened the scoring when he headed home an Alan Thompson free kick from just inside the penalty area and from then on there only looked like one team who was going to collect 3 points.


Stephen Pearson was then given the chance to pull Motherwell level, the midfielder had a clear sight of goal when he latched onto a Lasley pass in the Celtic box, but Magnus Hedman was able to save the Pearo's weak shot with his feet.


Celtic doubled their lead after 64 minutes when Henrik Larsson found Chris Sutton with a pass and the big English striker slotted the ball past Marshall to score on his first SPL start of this season.


Substitute Shaun Maloney then increased Celtic's lead with twenty minutes remaining. The Scotland star fired his free kick into the top corner giving Gordon Marshall no chance of saving.


One plus point from the match, we had seven corners compared to Celtic's two.


Fans View Karenmfc

We played really well but did we really expect to get a result at Parkhead ?



Celtic -


Hedman,

Varga,

Balde,

McNamara,

Sylla,

Lennon ( Gray ),

Sutton,

Petrov ( Miller ),

Thompson,

Hartson ( Maloney ),

Larsson.



Motherwell -


Marshall,

Corrigan,

Partridge,

Craigan,

Hammell,

Adams,

Pearson,

Leitch ( Wright ),

Lasley,

Clarkson,

Craig.

Referee - I. Brines


Attendance - 58,013


SPL Table - 20 - 9 - 03

Celtic 16

Rangers 15

Hearts 12

Dundee 10

Dunfermline 8

Hibernian 8

Motherwell 7

Kilmarnock 7

Livingston 5

Aberdeen 4

Dundee Utd 4

Partick Thistle 2