Ross County 3 Celtic 2: The missing

Sports Writer

Sunday 10 March 2013

THE world has moved on a lot since 2010, but some things stay the same.

The Ross County players celebrate after Wohlfarth's injury-time winner sealed their comeback from 2-0 down Photograph: SNS

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Stewart Fisher

Some Celtic careers never recovered from losing to Ross County in the Scottish Cup semi-final at Hampden and Neil Lennon didn't hold back in his criticism of his current players after yesterday's SPL defeat to the same opponents.

"I am not happy with some of the attitude of the players," said the manager, who excluded striker Gary Hooper from the general malaise. "Some of them look like their minds are away elsewhere, with other clubs."I don't know if they have been tapped up, but I know where they are mentally and I can tell by their body language they are not with us at the minute. These players owe me. I took them from places where nobody had heard of them and I put then in the shop window. I want payback now."The Parkhead side, of course, are SPL champions-elect and looked set to banish the disappointment of exiting the Champions League in Turin on Wednesday when they raced to an early two-goal lead. But they fell out of the game badly and there was a justice of sorts when Ross County's Steffen Wohlfarth swooped to head in the injury- time winner that moved the Dingwall side on to 11 games unbeaten.While the visiting fans chanted about 10 in a row, it was an anthem which could just have easily applied to the home side. County's form guide showed seven wins and three draws from their last 10 matches, a run which has transformed them into European contenders.This result saw them leapfrog local rivals Inverness Caledonian Thistle and no-one was laughing last night at the possibility of the Victoria Park side gracing the Europa League.Celtic, without nine first-team players, made five changes, with rare starts for Rami Gershon and Dylan McGeouch. Ross County were minus Ivan Sproule and Richard Brittain, but had Stuart Kettlewell back after injury.The surface at the Global Energy Stadium was barren and icy gusts of wind made conditions difficult, but Celtic had the wind in the first half and didn't take long to use it to their advantage.Two Celtic corners ensued after Michael Fraser touched a Hooper shot beyond a post. Charlie Mulgrew's first kick was deep to Efe Ambrose, the second was drilled flat. It caught Fraser by surprise, and he could only help it into his top corner.Miku almost added a second, finishing too close to Fraser after good work by Beram Kayal, but the goalkeeper would be culpable again at Celtic's second goal, when he was left pawing at the ball almost apologetically as Hooper took advantage of the windy conditions to loft the ball over him."It was two poor goals from our point of view and Michael Fraser knows he should have done better with both," manager Derek Adams said. "We knew we had the quality to get back into the game and we thoroughly deserved to win. Celtic didn't create many opportunities."County had made a quiet start, but it proved to be the calm before the storm as two goals in the space of six minutes hauled them level. First, a partially cleared corner dropped to Grant Munro at the edge of the box, and the centre-half skelped an effort into Fraser Forster's top corner. The excellent Iain Vigurs was the architect of the next goal, beating a couple of players down the right before lofting in a deep cross which McGeouch couldn't clear and Sam Morrow knocked it in.The teams went in level at half-time although that really shouldn't have been the case. Anthony Stokes tugged a finish just wide as the seconds counted down to the break, and further escapes followed during the second period when Fraser saved Hooper's shot then saw it deflect off Mihael Kovacevic and on to the bar.Hooper struck woodwork himself on the swivel, but Celtic were generally pallid after the break and ultimately they were punished. Martin Scott almost reprised his 2010 clincher, but miskicked when clean through following an Ambrose mistake.Wohlfarth narrowly missed one glaring opportunity before racing on to Evangelos Oikonomou's long pass to head over the exposed Forster. "Some of my friends have been messaging me and saying, 'you crazy guy, scoring against Celtic,' the German said after what was his first County goal.

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Ross County 3 Celtic 2: The missing

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