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The Scotsman 02/03/1994
By Roddy Thomson Celtic1 Kilmarnock 0
A CROWD of 10,882 watched a last-minute free kick from John Collins keep alive Celtic's one remaining realistic aim, a place in Europe, is still within their reach. A Bobby Williamson foul on Celtic's stand-in captain (Paul McStay was a surprise absentee), gave Collins his fifth goal this season from a drive which took a wicked deflection off the defensive wall.
Throughout most of the preceding 89 minutes, Celtic had looked a forlorn outfit, and it is left now to Kilmarnock to rue a point cruelly lost as they slip ever closer into the relegation mire.
The Celtic board may be considered inept by all and sundry, but they have shown no little skill in keeping predators at bay. They were outsmarted just before half-time, however, when a fox came on to the park and ran the length of the pitch. Wild days indeed.
The only near-thing in a poor first half was a 19th-minute Gus McPherson volley for Kilmarnock which cracked back off a post. Macari had started in 3-5-2 formation, but his plan was forcibly altered when Paul Byrne had to replace the injured Gary Gillespie. Damage to players, in fact, was the main theme during this period with Kilmarnock's Mark Reilly stretchered off moments earlier after a clash of heads with Brian O'Neil.
With the action as appetising as your average rodent's dinner, chants of ''sack the board'' from those who had resisted the boycott calls finally broke out. A tame Willie Falconer header was all Celtic had in reserve before the break. Collins began to suggest that he might have an important say in the final reckoning when a 49th-minute swirling volley was deflected past Ray Montgomerie. But hopes of an improvement in the general play were ill-founded.
Ally Mitchell again left Tony Mowbray for dead – the latter foolishly attempting an overhead clearance.
If the fear factor is killing the ability of teams such as Kilmarnock to take a leading role in mid-table affairs, who can lift Celtic out of their present mode? As free kicks were conceded instead of throw-ins, so poor clearances badly utilised were simply repeated – Craig Napier's carefree 18-yard volley being followed by a Brown shot plucked all too easily out of the air by Carl Muggleton.
This was effectively Celtic's only home match in eight weeks and it seems preposterous now to even contemplate a club revival emanating from the pitch.
Attendance: 10.822
Celtic: Muggleton, Gillespie, Boyd, Martin, Mowbray, McNally, McGinlay, O'Neil, Nicholas, Falconer, Collins. Subs: Byrne, Vata, Bonner.
Kilmarnock: Geddes, McPherson, Black, Montgomerie, Brown, Millen, Mitchell, Reilly, Williamson, Burns, Napier. Subs: McCluskey, McInally, Mathews.
Referee: W Crombie (Edinburgh).