Celtic moved into second place in the table with an important victory at Easter Road. The staduim was packed and expectations were high following recent wins at both Celtic Park and Ibrox. However Celtic's first attack on 5 minutes brought about a goal to silence the crowd. Hibs gave Shunsuke Nakamura far to much time on the the ball and he superbly found Petrov inside the Hibs box and the Bulgarian scored what proved to be the winning goal by sliding the ball under Malkowski in the Hibs goal.

Celtic were comfortably in control of the opening stages and almost doubled their lead after 25 minutes following a misjudgement by Hibs defender Murphy. Nakamura beared down on goal but his shot lacked the pace required to seriously trouble the goalkeeper.

For Hartson, it transpired to be one of those unaffective afternoons as though some of the big striker’s work outside of the box was decent enough, he was poor in the 18 yard box. His fortunes in front of goal were typified when he made a mess of an excellent chance by tamely passing the ball into the Hibs keeper’s midriff after being teed up by Petrov on 28 minutes.

The Hibs keeper again had to be alert to push the ball away from goal when Gary Caldwell took a fresh-air swipe at a Mo Camara cross, though Caldwell atoned for the error by blocking Zurawski's follow-up shot. Camara again worked his socks off for the cause as both him and Telfer often gave the midfield the option of the over-lap.

Artur Boruc has a spectator for most of the first half as Celtic bossed the game. He finally tasted a bit of action with 10 minutes of the first half remaining, but the shot by Dean Shiels from a tight angle was straight at him. The ever impressive Boruc made a fine save as he palmed away a deflected Steven Whittaker effort that was destined for the bottom corner as Hibs at last applied some pressure.

Ivan Sproule who took Rangers apart did not have such luck today as he was left frustrated when he felt he was fouled inside the box by Bobo Balde just before the break, but the referee waved play on.

Nakamura did not have his finest game in the Hoops but he is a real danger from set-pieces. Shortly after the interval he beat Malkowski from 25 yards only for the post to come to Hibs' rescue. By this point the game should have been over but Celtic lacked compusure and a bit of class infront of goal and at 1-0, the game was far from over.

A David Murphy cross allowed Hibs substitute Amadou Konte to provide a real comedy moment at Easter Road as he missed a terrific chance to equalise. The striker inexplicably opted not to head the ball at goal or control it on his chest, instead flinching as if a cannon ball had been fired at him, allowing the ball to bounce off his back.

Moments later Boruc produced the save of the match to tip a Whittaker drive round the post. Whittaker was a constant thread to Celtic as he had a number of good attempts from outside the box.The biggest talking point of the match was when a frustrated Sproule, who was getting little joy in his match-up against Paul Telfer appeared to have a kick at the Celtic player, who reacted angrily, sparking something of a melee, which produced bookings for the two main protagonists as well as Balde. Both Sproule and Telfer went head to head before the Hibs man raised his hands and put them in Balde's face. By the guidelines set to referees this incident should have seen Sproule recieving a red card. With Dallas in the crowd, the ref Craig Thomson could face repercussions from his superiors.

Celtic captain Neil Lennon came within inches of cappng of a fine performance but his fierce drive just went over the bar.

All of Celtic's hard work was almost threw away in the final minute as after Whittaker produced a good save from Boruc, Steven Fletcher chose the wrong option after being straight through on goal. Instead of squaring the ball, he attempted a shot, much to the frustration of his teammates, but Boruc stood up well and literally saved 2 points for Celtic.

This is a fantastic victory for Celtic which cuts the gap to Hearts to 5 points and puts us 3 points ahead of third place Rangers. 1st meets 3rd next week while Celtic play ICT at Celtic Park.


Hibs: Malkowski, Whittaker, Caldwell, Hogg, Murphy, Sproule, Stewart (Fletcher 76), Beuzelin, Thomson, Shiels (Riordan 65), O'Connor (Konte 51)

Celtic: Boruc, Telfer, Balde, McManus, Camara, Petrov, Lennon, Nakamura (Maloney 73), Thompson (Pearson 50), Hartson (Beattie 60), Zurawski