CELTIC
Rab Douglas: Untroubled.
Failed to cut out a low Jason Scotland cross but was unpunished. Not called upon to make any difficult saves.
Didier Agathe: Benefited from a final in which neither of Celtic's full-backs had much to do.
Brought supporters to life with some second-half runs.
Bobo Balde: Crucial role in the opener. Also hit a cutting long ball which sent Stilian Petrov clear early in the second half.
Unbothered in defence.
Stan Varga: A rock in the heart of defence. Made timely interceptions in the air and on the ground, and had scoring chance. Booked for a late foul.
Jackie McNamara: Had so little meaningful involvement he may as well have spent the day planning for his testimonial match. Went down hurt near the end but recovered.
Stilian Petrov: Celtic's liveliest midfielder. Had a penalty claim but made a meal of it under Garry Kenneth's challenge.
Chris Sutton: Almost created a goal with a cross for Alan Thompson. Drilled a low shot wide after fine build-up play but worse was to come. His feet slipped from under him and he fluffed a Beckhamesque penalty.
Neil Lennon: Caught the eye for aiming a volley of abuse at assistant referee Andy Davis after he had signalled for his foul on Scotland. Brief promise of a goal, but his attempted volley was almost a fresh-air kick.
Alan Thompson: Made the opener with his low free-kick.
Denied a goal only by Mark Wilson's wonderful goalmouth intervention. Forced a double save from Bullock later. Aiden McGeady replaced him in 85.
Craig Bellamy: Celtic's best attacker by a distance and man of the match. Fouled for the free-kick which gave Celtic their opener and for the penalty.
Stretched United repeatedly in the second half.
John Hartson: Disappointing end to a season in which he finished as Scotland's top scorer. A second-half diving header flew over the bar.
Replaced with 18 minutes left by Joos Valgaeren.
Martin O'Neill: Remained as engaged, committed and involved through every second of his final match as manager as he had been in five momentous years. Exchanged pleasantries with Andy Davis and ended on a high by going up to lift the cup.
DUNDEE UNITED
Tony Bullock: At fault, if only organisationally, for the manner in which Thompson's low free-kick was allowed to whizz past him for the opener.
Mark Wilson: Always a willing runner down the right, but will be disappointed with his inability to deliver a telling ball.
Goal-saving intervention prevented Thompson from scoring on 38 mins.
Derek McInnes: Captain displayed his usual positional sense and mopped up plenty of loose balls, but was generally the quietest of United's midfield three.
Sacrificed for Collin Samuel on 77 minutes.
Alan Archibald: Eventful match. Unfortunate to concede the free-kick for the goal, had crucial first-half tackle on Hartson and struck crossbar with a late 30-yard strike.
Booked on 87 minutes.
Mark Kerr: Snapped into a few early tackles. Good on the ball and refused to be bullied by Sutton. Tellingly received accolade of taking over as captain after departure of McInnes.
Grant Brebner: Creative hub of most good things United pieced together in the first half.
Fired a low shot narrowly wide on the stroke of half time.
Barry Robson: Hands full with Agathe and booked for foul on Bellamy on 52 minutes, but warmed to the task. Went off for Stuart Duff with seven minutes to go.
Stevie Crawford: Plenty of running, but lacked killer instinct on his glimpses of goal. Slipped after beating Balde on quick first half break-out. Replaced by James Grady on 83 minutes.
Jason Scotland: Held the ball up well and ran cleverly into the channels to fire in a low cross which baffled Douglas.
Paul Ritchie: Booked on 31 minutes for lunge on Bellamy, but an assured performance embellished by a few heroic last-gasp challenges.
Garry Kenneth: Competed well in the air against Hartson, and had a few great interventions, but struggled one-to-one against Bellamy and conceded penalty.
Gordon Chisholm: No signs of nerves in his first major final.
Picked the right formation for players at his disposal, and not afraid to go for broke in the last quarter of an hour.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article