A Tale Of Two Halves

[ChampionsElect]

Celts Play Flowing Football Before 'Well Fight Back

Today at the ground where Celtic infamously lost the league, on the last day of the season, they produced some of the finest football under manager Gordon Strachan.

The team which started was somewhat different from the usual starting eleven. Under fire Mark Wilson was put back to his natural side at right back and nearly forgotten Lee Naylor was back in on his favoured left back slot.The midfield that Celtic put on today looked incredibly strong - and that was only on paper. Maloney, Robson Crosas and Scott Brown made up the midfield four and showed Celtic's strength in depth with having Nakamura and McGeady on the bench. Young Barcelona starlet, Crosas, made his first start for the team and was looking to impress while top scorer from last season, Scott McDonald, was upfront with top scorer from this season, Georgios Samaras.

Celtic clearly wanting to make a mends after a shocking Old Firm display 2 weeks previously went on the offensive straight away. It took less than 10 minutes for Celtic to make the breakthrough with Maloney hitting into an empty net after some determined play and a magical cross from Scott Brown.

Shortly after Celtic made it 2-0 when Samaras was allowed to muscle his way through the defence and strike the ball into the bottom right corner of the net, even though it looked like the ball may have got stuck under his feet at one point.

Former Motherwell player Scott McDonald, who had just returned from injury, was keen not too miss out on the act. He turned 'Well defender Craigan with ease before volleying the ball into the top right hand corner. Similar to last season McDonald has took a few games to get of the mark but Hoops fans won't be complaining if he gives them a similar return.

Throughout the first half young star Crosas had shown a wide array of passing skills, yet it was the whole team who got involved with a great fourth goal. Lee Naylor played a short pass with Scott Brown down the left before sliding the ball to Scott McDonald. McDonald managed a cute little back heel into the path of Samaras who ran with the ball before calmly sliding it into the bottom corner.

Strachan had always wanted the team to play good football, and at half time it doesn't get much better than that.

The second half began the same way as the first with Scott Brown breaking into the box, before playing a cut back which nobody could balst home. Yet it was Motherwell who got the 5th goal, poor defensive decisions led to John Sutton volleying the ball home. This was made worse when Stephen McManus failed to get in a tackle that led to Motherwell's second goal.

Motherwell continued their good play especially upfront and it wasn't until the last 15 minutes of the game were Celtic started to get more chances to add to their 4 goals. Samaras squandered a couple and youngster Sheridan could have been called selfish for not cutting back the ball to the Greek internationalist in the closing stages.

A great game finished 4-2 to the Champions and it will leave manager Gordon Strachan wondering how he can get his team to play like they did in the first half week in week out.

TC Man Of The Match - Georgios Samaras.