Celtic lined out at Celtic Park tonight coming off the back of their impressive weekend win against Hamilton. Hunting down Aberdeen for top spot in the league nothing but a home win would suffice for the Celts.

Early doors Celtic enjoyed a lot of possession without actually opening up any clear cut chances. Liam Henderson can feel aggrieved after his performance and goal the weekend to be replaced by Anthony Stokes, but it was a Stokes cross on the 27th minute to find big Virgil on the back post to head the Bhoys one goal ahead.

Stokes, striker turned winger this season was pivotal in the second goal as he put the ball on a plate for Leigh Griffiths to slot home Celtic’s second just before the halftime whistle. Stokes might have looked at Henderson the weekend and felt he had some competition for his starting place but his 2 assists was a perfect return for the Irish man.

 

A 2-0 lead for Celtic allowed Ronny to make a half time substitution with Lustig coming on for Adam Matthews. With Forrest, Lustig, Stokes and Mulgrew back in contention for the hoops it will be a great boost to the squad over the next few months as they push to retain the championship.

It probably wasn’t possible that Motherwell could play as bad in the 2nd half and they with nothing to lose it looked like their manager told them to have a go in the second half. With Motherwell scraping their blanket defence it was going to leave more gaps at the back and the next two chances fell to Johansen. The first chance ended with sarcastic chants of “Sebo” but the second chance hit the post after an Izzy cross.

Five minutes later Stokes had a chance but fluffed it and seconds later he was replaced with another returning injury James Forrest. With chances now coming thick and fast it was Izaguirre next to smash the crossbar.

Just before the 70 minute mark Johansen was involved in a nasty head clash that required Celtic’s third and last substitution with the bloodied Johansen getting replaced by Scepovic. Ten minutes later the ball was in the back of the net as Celtic’s scoring full backs continue to find the back of the next and this time it was the returning Mikael Lustig who fired the Celtic 3 up. This report is getting typed as it happens and following on from his last goal with was Lustig who netted a cracking diving header for 4-0.

With 5 minutes left Lustig missed the chance for a 45 minute hat trick but again the woodwork came to Motherwell’s rescue.

Celtic’s convincing win see them go one point ahead of Aberdeen and top of the table with still one game in hand. Their next game at paradise should be to a full house as the Celts take on Inter Milan in the Europa League.

Celts Are Here Man of the Match

Leigh Griffiths

 

Gordon, Matthews, Denayer, van Dijk, Izaguirre, Bitton, Brown, Johansen, Commons, Stokes, Griffiths

Subs: Ambrose, Guidetti, Scepovic, Lustig, McGregor, Forrest, Zaluska

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