THIS was the ideal tune-up for Celtic ahead of Sunday's William Hill Scottish Cup final.
They kept their momentum ticking along with another bright performance, in the first half especially, while avoiding any fresh injury worries. There was also a further 90 minutes for Scott Brown as the Celtic captain continues his rehabilitation from injury. Beyond scoring more than the four they did, it could not have gone much better for Neil Lennon and his players.
Now comes the hard part. Lennon was without Charlie Mulgrew, Adam Matthews and James Forrest – all rested or carrying minor niggles – and started Anthony Stokes on the bench. How to fit them all in to a cup final squad of 16 for the match against Hibernian might require some considerable thought.
Those stripped for action at Tannadice did their chances of playing at Hampden no harm. Dundee United put up little opposition in the opening 45 minutes and Celtic were not slow to take advantage, Georgios Samaras scoring twice after Kris Commons had given them an early lead. The match was of little significance for the champions but they did not stint in their endeavour, Stokes' strike rounding off an accomplished display. "I got everything I wanted from the team," said Lennon. "On the counter attack at times we were fantastic. It was important we stayed competitive going into the cup final and the players will feel good about themselves after that."
This was United's fourth loss since the league split and they could have few complaints. The only real bright spot, in fact, came during the half-time interval when striker Brian Graham, signed from Raith Rovers on a two-year contract, came out to take a bow. "We gave ourselves too much to do by giving away a lot of silly free kicks," said Jackie McNamara, the United manager. "But it doesn't change anything that we didn't know last week. We have to try to make sure we are a better squad next year."
As one striker arrived at United, another was moving on. Barring any problems with his medical, Jon Daly will this week sign a two-year contract with Rangers, bringing a six-and-a-half-year stint at Tannadice to an end. "It was an emotional day," said the Irishman. "When I first came up I could never have imagined achieving what I did and I'm very grateful to Craig Levein and Peter Houston for taking a chance on me.
"The ambition now is to go and play in front of 45,000 every second week. You don't get that in Scotland unless you play for Celtic. The fanbase at Rangers is massive and it's a challenge to get such a big club back to the top division. It's a two-year deal with an option of a third so it's a little bit more security for me and my family as well."
There was also probably the final sighting of Paddy McCourt in a Celtic shirt. The Northern Irishman had his first start in three months in a deep-lying playmaker role and demonstrated in flashes why he still has his admirers after five years at Celtic. As swansongs go, it was not the sort of swashbuckling display the travelling support had clearly hoped for, although one mazy second-half dribble had them out of their seats in anticipation.
Instead it was Commons and Samaras, in particular, who put United to the sword. Commons' free kicks were inducing regular bouts of panic in the United defence and by half-time he had scored one, created a goal for Samaras with another, and had a further effort palmed on to a post by Radoslaw Cierzniak.
It was Daly who conceded the free kick that led to the first goal, after 11 minutes, when he dumped Commons to the ground. The Scotland cap picked himself up before threading a low shot that beat the defensive wall and found the net. Within six minutes Celtic had a second. There was a dose of good fortune about it, Samaras swaggering in from the left to unleash a shot that cannoned off John Souttar before looping over the goalkeeper.
United were offering little resistance and soon found themselves down 3-0. It was the simplest of goals, Commons curling in a free kick from the right that travelled unimpeded across the six-yard box to Samaras who headed in from a matter of yards. Ciernziak made good saves from Joe Ledley and Brown, but was beaten again four minutes from time by Stokes' deflected shot.
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