dunfermline v celtic (by yorkshire tim)

the celtic team, today welcomed a new face, ex-liverpool defender, stefan henchoz was drafted in to help out the defence for the trip to fife, but other new signing craig bellamy was left out due to martin o'neill not wanting to risk the welshman apparently because he didn't like the idea of him playing on the plastic pitch with his history of injuries, but he would have struggled to get into the attack if he knew how well chris sutton and john hartson would play today.

this was a cup game and the celtic players weren't risking their cup run against a premier league team like dunfermline, who have given celtic some well fought matches in the past.

in the first 5 minutes the pars were on top, but were hit on the break by a 7th minute john hartson goal provided by sutton.

2 minutes later, hartson was causing havock again by unluckily hitting the crossbar, for player of the month, chris sutton to easily rebound in with a header.

about 30 minutes into the game, dunfermline goalkeeper, derek stillie was on hand to save a well hit alan thompson free kick.

dunfermline then had another a little spell, forcing 7 corners, but not causing any distruption to the celtic team.

a few minutes before half time, a mix up in the dunfermline defence gifted john hartson for him to side foot his 21st goal of the season.

celtic had done all the hard work in the first half and knew that there wasn't as much work to do in the 2nd half and it showed when they kept possession for most of the second half.

believe it or not after forcing aroung 8 corners through the match , dunfermline hit their first shot 53 minutes into the game, but it was too far away to cause the celtic goalkeeper, rab douglas any trouble.

on the 70th minute mark, dunfermline's andus skerla's powerful header was well saved by douglas.

towards the end of the game, noel hunt's well headed shot beat rab douglas but hit off the bar to be cleared to safety.

DUNFERMLINE ATHLETIC 0-3 CELTIC
...........................................hartson, 7
...........................................sutton, 9
...........................................hartson, 42

attendance: 8,014 at east end park, dunfermline.

my man of the match: chris sutton, another champion's performance by the striker.

sunday 6th february 2005