PARTICK THISTLE politely formed a guard of honour for the champions at Parkhead but that was the last bit of respect shown to Celtic.

And good on them for doing so.

The Jags fans sang about there being “only one team in Glasgow” and while strictly speaking that’s not true, there has been one club in the city which has hogged all the headlines this season and it's been them.

So it would be remiss not to give Thistle top billing here. Not since May 1994 have Maryhill’s finest taken anything from Celtic Park apart from defeat. That they drew 23 years ago against a team managed by Lou Macari was no great shock; however, this was.

Read more: Partick Thistle manager Alan Archibald full of pride for his players who stunned Celtic Park - and so is Brendan Rodgers

But then should we have been so stunned? Alan Archibald has done a tremendous job. His team have all-but confirmed a top six finish and they took advantage of a much-changed Celtic team.

There was no Scott Brown, James Forrest or Dedryck Boyata in the squad, while Stuart Armstrong and Kieran Tierney dropped to the bench.

This allowed Eboue Kouassi his first start since joining Celtic in a 3-4-3 – perhaps a system we will see more of next season – and Tom Rogic got the last half an hour, his first action in the best part of four months.

Brendan Rodgers won't lose much sleep over this it must be said and the Celtic fans surely wouldn't begrudge their rivals from the trendy west end a bit of joy.

When games take place after the Lord Mayor’s parade, so to speak, they can be soaking squibs, but this was good.

Patrick Roberts was in the false nine role, which he seems to like, and from the start Celtic played great one-twos around the Thistle players, which must have pleased Rodgers, but the in-form Thistle defence stood firm.

For all that Celtic produced some nice, intricate stuff, it took until 20 minutes for them to create a genuine chance. It came from an Emilio Izaguirre free-kick that he curled in from the right to the back post where Nir Bitton got his head to ball which sailed just over.

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Big Kouassi, and the lad is some unit, has had to be patient since arriving in January and was keen to impress. The midfielder needs games, that much is obvious, but he has something about him. It’s going to be interesting to watch him develop.

He needs to work on his shooting right enough, as a wild effort on 28 minutes suggested. At least he had a pop.

Thistle were struggling to get on the ball, which was both understandable and expected, and while they were doing a bit of chasing their effort and origination was spot-on as it has been for most of this season.

And for all that they were rather pinned back, the Jags came close to a goal on 32 minutes when a Callum Booth cross into Celtic’s box which was met by Ade Azeez on the volley. It would have taken something special for the striker to score and that was just beyond him.

Good inter-play between Roberts and McGregor ended with the former testing Thistle keeper Tomas Cerny, a test he passed easily. Then on 39 minutes, McGregor had a punt from the best part of 25 yards which wasn’t a million miles away from the top corner.

Before half-time, Scott Sinclair tried and almost succeeded in taking on and beating the entire Thistle defence, Roberts saw a goal-bound shot blocked, Bitton tried his luck with distance with a shot which moved around quite a bit and yet Cerny still made a save.

And that was the tale of the half. Celtic had all the ball, Thistle did all the hard graft.

Archibald gave 18-year-old Andrew McCarthy his first start, the lad had a decent game as well, but just after the break he was given a tough introduction to professional football when a Kouassi high boot caught him plumb in the face.

From that free-kick, dead centre and just outside of Celtic’s area, Booth beat the wall with his effort but not Gordon.

And then on 49 minutes Celtic took the lead and just like Tynecastle it was all about two players.

Roberts’s brain is as quick as his feet which means he can get himself out of a tight spot and produce an end product, which on this occasion saw him getting free from a marker, play a superb pass to Sinclair whose chipped effort was sublime.

Read more: Partick Thistle manager Alan Archibald full of pride for his players who stunned Celtic Park - and so is Brendan Rodgers

Cristian Gamboa put an effort right at Cerny, McGregor put his into the stand and then when the clock struck 64 minutes the game went a bit, well, odd when out of nothing Thistle equalised.

Celtic seemed well set up to deal with any danger when Chris Elliot had the ball just inside the box, but his low cross was so good that no defender read it and Azeez did really well to sweep the ball past Gordon.

Celtic’s reaction was to charge up the park straight away and win what was a soft-ish penalty. True, Booth did clatter into Gamboa after he had cut back the ball, but referees rarely if ever point to the spot after such misdemeanours – but Greg Aitken did.

Sinclair put the ball down, took a few steps back, and while everyone expected him to score, Cerny in the Thistle goal pulled off a quite super save.

We had a real game now. Both sides had chances and the unthinkable came close to happening Azeez was through on goal again on 72 minutes but was denied by his delay and Jozo Simunovic’s superb tackle.

It was to end a draw. Thistle will be rightly proud of themselves. All credit to them.