2000-12-02. Celtic 3-1 Dunfermline Athletic. Premier League.

The Herald (Glasgow)
December4, 2000
Johnson brings fans to life;Third goal settlesCeltic

BYLINE:Ken Gallacher

Celtic3Dunfermline1

The result of this game was always going to be more important toCelticthan the performance and so it turned out as the league
leaders extended the gap at the top of the table.
It ended a troubled week for manager Martin O'Neill and his players who had dropped five points in their two previous matches against Rangers and Hibs.

As midfielder Alan Thompson admitted afterwards: "We needed the three points today, there is no doubt about that. I wanted to make a contribution because I felt I let the rest of the lads down when I was sent off against Rangers and then had to miss the game in midweek.

"I watched the game against Hibs – although I don't like being a spectator when I should beplaying.
"Today we lost that early goal when Jason Dair scored in just 53 seconds, but we reacted positively to that. Lubo Moravcik equalised and Henrik Larsson put us ahead. In fact, we might have been 4-1 ahead at half-time.
"However, they changed their system, and their personnel, for the second half and for 15 or 20 minutes we found it hard to get the ball. Then we scored the third and that as it. Now we have a week off and we can work together and think about putting another run together in the league games ahead."
Thompson and his team-mates owe Larsson, in particular, a
special vote of thanks. His cheeky goal in the first half pushed the Parkhead men into the lead and later O'Neill was quick to praise the Swedish international striker's contribution to the cause.
O'Neill said: "I thought Henrik was back to his best today with his goal and, in fact, with the whole of his game. And Johan Mjallby
wasn't far behind him. He was excellent."
Larsson's strike, in 21 minutes, came when he dispossessed Justin Skinner in the penalty box before sending an angled shot beyond goalkeeper Marco Ruitenbeek and into goal at the far post.
That turned the game and
Larsson and Tommy Johnson could, indeed, have made the score 4-1 at half-time. There was that spell in the second half when they must have regretted not being able to do so.
Even O'Neill allowed: "I thought that going behind after the previous week at Ibrox was the last thing we wanted so I am very pleased we came back from that to get the points.
"Dunfermlinepushed us onto the back foot in the second half for a spell when they played very well."
And he admitted: "We were glad to get that third goal.
"There might have been a little edginess which came from the crowd and onto the field for a
little while.
"Of course you have to
remember we had a very attacking team out there today and we had to ask Bobby Petta and Didier Agathe to drop back and defend as well at times.
"Probably there were only three recognised defensive players out there so you have to take that into account when you look at the 20 minutes or so whenDunfermlinetroubled us with their movement."
Dunfermlinemanager Jimmy Calderwood smiled afterwards: "I'm disappointed in that it took us until half-time to start passing and playing.
"It might have been interesting if we had been able to get level again in the second half.
"We did have that one chance when Barry Nicholson broke
forward and got the ball across goal, but Stevie Crawford just couldn't really connect at the far post.
"It could have been 2-2 at that stage and there could have been a shock on the cards.
"Then we got a soft penalty against us – I think that's 10 for the season now for us – and the keeper saved it.
"I had told him it was about time he saved one and he managed to save one at last.
"But then, from the corner, Tommy Johnson got in front of Andrius Skerla and that was it for us.
"I think Martin was probably happy to see Johnson score that third goal because by then the 59,000 people in the stadium were quite quiet."
Calderwood altered his team for the second half. Goalscorer Dair had been forced to limp off injured before half-time.
In the re-shuffle, theDunfermlinemanager sent Nicholson into the midfield and brought Lee Bullen back to mark Petta.
He believed that Bullen's pace would counter the menace coming from the left -winger, who had been a constant thorn in their flesh in the first half and, for the most part, that was the case.
The one occasion when Petta went clear after the turn he won a penalty when Bullen was judged to bring him down in the box.
Larsson missed that kick, but within a minute Johnson had scored the third to send the game beyond the Fife club's reach.
Later Bullen explained: "I was trying to be very careful all the time when Bobby was in possession. When the penalty was given he had got ahead of me and I was trying desperately not to touch him. I think maybe our bodies brushed and that's why the referee gave the kick.
"I didn't think it was worth a penalty, but overall, the referee had a good game. When he called me back and went into his pocket for a card I worried for a moment if it was going to be red – because I had been watching Bobby and didn't know if there were any other defenders between us and the goal.
"I just hoped I was not the last man. Then I saw the yellow card come out and realised someone had been there."
Bullen then pointed out a problem which existed for theCelticplayers during the game.
"The crowd were really quiet in the second half when we had our best spell of the game," he claimed. "They were silent for long spells and I think they were maybe feeling the tension. That gave us a lift when we were pushing the ball around.
"Then we got out of jail when Marco saved Larsson's penalty attempt, but within a minute, just when we are feeling good about that escape, we lost the third goal. Tommy Johnson did well to get in ahead of the defenders and head the ball into goal. And that was it finished.
"Maybe scoring that early goal gaveCelticthe kick up the backside they needed in the circumstances because they came back at us and we lost our shape then. It was the second half before we could recover."

BYLINE: GLENN GIBBONS

THESE are strange times atCelticPark, where apprehension appears to be more common than elation among supporters of a team holding a substantial, potentially conclusive, advantage over the pack in the league championship.
In such circumstances, even the most temporary patches of moderate form or uncertainty on the field tend to be magnified, the lengthier, more significant periods of ascendancy largely forgotten in the search for hints that the players are on the brink of a nervous collapse.
It is football's way of echoing the words of Antony over the body of the fallen Caesar: "The evil that men do lives after them, the good is oft interred with their bones."

Unaccustomed asCelticfans are to seeing their side occupy such an exalted position at any time, far less before the turn of the year, perhaps a certain anxiety over their ability to sustain their early excellence is understandable. This would undoubtedly be deepened, too, by the events of the previous six days, during which they dropped five points against Rangers and Hibs.But the murmurings of disquiet – amounting almost to alarm – which followed this latest victory betrayed a tension which seems to have deprived them of perspective. The danger of this development is that, if maintained and transmitted to the players in coming weeks, such trepidation can become like a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Any cold analysis – untouched by the fans' sensitivity – of what occurred againstDunfermlinewould reveal that a result other than a victory for the home side by at least two goals would have been a ludicrous distortion of the truth. Such outcomes are, of course, not unknown in an often eccentric game, but one was prevented here because Lubomir Moravcik and Henrik Larsson scored the crucial goals during a first half in whichCelticwere embarrassingly superior to their visitors.
Apart from a period of around 20 minutes after the interval – less than a quarter of the match – whenDunfermline'sadmirable determination not to be swamped saw them compete fiercely and at times successfully for control,Celticwere considerably ahead of their opponents in most aspects.
Jimmy Calderwood, the East End Park manager, was entitled to draw encouragement from that episode in which his team were at least the equal and frequently the superior of Martin O'Neill's side, but theirs was a largely unthreatening authority.
Calderwood recalled with justification the moment when Steve Crawford might have equalised and averred that it could have changed the course of the match. But this was slightly misleading on two counts. Firstly, it was only a half -chance, Crawford already beyond the far post and having to stretch to reach the whipped cross after Barry Nicholson had galloped free down the right. Lifting the ball high and wide was not a surprising outcome.
Secondly, it was the only moment of menace the Fife side managed to contrive during their comparatively short spell in charge of the match and is easily counter-balanced by the recollection of the squandering of virtually unmissable opportunities by Larsson and his front-line partner, Tommy Johnson, in the first half.
Celticwere already ahead by the time Larsson slipped his shot wide of the post after teasing Marco Ruitenbeek off his line and when Johnson's shockingly feeble finish after rounding the goalkeeper allowed Scott Thomson to get back in time to keep the ball out of the net.
It was, indeed, a small miracle thatDunfermlinehad managed to restrict the deficit to 2-1 after 45 minutes of unremitting pressure from the Parkhead side. That had been unwittingly detonated byDunfermlinethemselves, who seemed to ignite the fuse by scoring after less than one minute.
Jason Dair's snaking shot from the left found its way into the bottom corner to the left of Rab Douglas, and the visitors must have felt for the next 44 minutes as though they were being counter-attacked by a wounded grizzly bear.
Moravcik's equaliser – a low, left-foot shot from Stilian Petrov's centre from the right – arrived just six minutes later, and when Larsson dispossessed the dilatory Justin Skinner and slid the ball through the legs of Ruitenbeek from a tight angle on the right, there would be a genuine fear among the travelling support that their team could be humiliated.
WhatDunfermline'sresurgent spirit in the second half achieved was a tempering ofCeltic'sspirit, the Parkhead side noticeably content not to take too many risks. The third goal was an indirect result of yet another dubious decision by the referee, Mike McCurry.
His penalty award after Bobby Petta had gone down when challenged by Lee Bullen looked harsh, but Ruitenbeek saved Larsson's shot, only to be beaten when, from the resultant corner, Johnson appeared to head Alan Thompson's cross into the ground, the bounce taking the ball high past the goalkeeper.
O'Neill, ever the pragmatist, was happy to accept the points without worrying over what might have been and expressed his delight at the prospect of a free week in which tired and injured players would have the opportunity to recover.