CELTIC 2 - 2 DUNDEE UTDStewart Fisher at Celtic Park
DUNDEE United just don't know when they are beaten. For the fourth time this season, they surrendered the opening goal against one of the Old Firm. Yet for the fourth time this season, they ended up with a share of the points and could quite easily have taken more.
As a result, the 10-point lead at the top of the Clydesdale Bank Premier League table Celtic could have had this morning may be cut to just half that if Rangers can win at Inverness at lunchtime. Having seemed at first to be hospitable New Year guests, Dundee United turned out to be the kind who refuse to leave quietly.
"I said to the players before the game that I thought we would win today, that is how much faith I've got in them," manager Craig Levein said afterwards, after his side's recovery from two goals down. "We didn't, so I suppose I got it wrong. But we played well enough in the second half to give me reasons to think that we can win the next time."
Buoyed by last week's Old Firm win at Ibrox, Celtic fans sold out Parkhead, an unusual occurrence for a non-Old Firm SPL match these days. But those who hoped the new year would signal a new beginning for Aiden McGeady - now that his two-week suspension for that infamous outburst of dressing room indiscipline had ended - were to be disappointed. McGeady watched the game from one of the executive boxes, and although Strachan later gave squad harmony and the under-21 rule as his reasons for omitting the player from his 18-man match squad, it smacked of an additional punishment which only served to increase the suspicion that he is destined to move on. A pre-match radio interview on the subject which was cut short did little to clear things up.
Dundee United arrived in the East End of Glasgow having lost just one of their last 17 games, yet altogether less optimistic portents for the travelling fans were the fact their last win at this particular ground came back in 1992, and the fact their goalkeeper Lukasz Zaluska now had divided loyalties after agreeing to join Celtic on a pre-contract in the summer. As it turned out, that was to be a red herring. "Lukasz today was trying to prove that he was better than Boruc," Levein said. "There were 60,000 here and he was trying to prove he is a good goalkeeper."
The early vibes suggested United's losing streak here was set to continue. Scott Brown, continuing his excellent recent form, burst from midfield to meet Scott McDonald's cute flick but tugged his shot wide of the post. Shunsuke Nakamura, recalled at the expense of his countryman Koki Mizuno to his natural habitat on the right side of midfield, measured an immaculate pass beyond the Dundee United rearguard, only for Georgios Samaras's chip to sail narrowly over the top corner.
Wilkie, tipped pre-match by his old pal Barry Robson to move on to bigger and better things after being linked with a move to Rangers, blotted his copybook by being overly casual when attempting to mop up an aimless pass down the left hand channel. In an instant, Brown had muscled him off it, and presented the ball to Samaras on the edge of the box. Zaluska hardly had a chance to get himself set before the ball was nestling in his bottom corner.
United had been partly complicit in their own downfall by sitting off their opponents, but it only took four minutes for them to issue a reminder of the threat they can pose. Wilkie played in Scott Robertson, but the Scotland midfielder's finish rolled narrowly beyond a post, possibly with the assistance of Boruc.
The visitors could and probably should have gone in at half time trailing by more, though. Zaluska saved from Nakamura's shot and Robson tugged a shot wide after Danny Swanson was caught in possession.
United had roused themselves from similar positions in all three of their previous encounters with the Old Firm, and some more choice words from Levein did the same here. But not before they had conceded a second. Sean Dillon was adjudged to have jumped unfairly with Scott McDonald, Nakamura put a free-kick on to Samaras's head, and the big Greek striker nodded downwards past Zaluska.
It was then that the fightback began. Stephen McManus caught Morgaro Gomis with a crude challenge on the edge of his box and Paul Dixon swept an imperious free-kick into Boruc's top left-hand corner. Nakamura would have been happy to put his name to it.
There then followed goalline clearances at either end in the space of two minutes. The combined heroics of Sean Dillon and Dixon got Brown's effort clear after Samaras and Zaluska had contested a high ball, then substitute Warren Feeney got on the end of a misconceived Robson pass back to round Boruc and roll the ball towards the empty net, only for McManus to make a fine sliding clearance.
But Feeney - a Northern Ireland international who makes no secret of his admiration for Rangers, and would soon find himself booked for gesturing to a section of the Celtic support - was to get his moment. From a contested throw-in right on half way which Strachan was adamant should have been Celtic's, Dixon lofted a long ball, Daly won the flick-on, and Feeney flung himself full length to nudge beyond Boruc with an outstretched leg.
A Nakamura free-kick almost punished United for their attacking ambitions, but when the final whistle came, it was hard to grudge them the preservation of their unbeaten Old Firm record. Stop losing to the likes of Kilmarnock and Hamilton and the SPL might become a bit more interesting.
