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Lennon's Celts off to a winning start
Mark Henderson
NEIL LENNON celebrated his first game in charge of Celtic with a comfortable 3-1 victory over Kilmarnock.
A brilliant brace from Robbie Keane and a Scott Brown strike gave the Hoops a commanding lead, before Craig Bryson pulled one back for the visitors when his cross looped under the bar.
But there was little danger of Celtic surrendering the three points in a match which they controlled from the first whistle.
Lennon had made several changes to the team for his first game in charge of the side as interim manager. Artur Boruc, Andreas Hinkel, Lee Naylor, Scott Brown and Marc-Antoine Fortune all came into the starting line-up.
The history books certainly suggested this would be a home victory. The last occasion Kilmarnock took full points at Celtic Park was on December 10, 1955 in a 2-0 win.
And it was the Hoops who went straight into the attack. With just three minutes on the clock, they had three golden chances to take the lead.
The first two fell to Fortune. First he headed over from six yards from Georgios Samaras’ driven cross. Then Hinkel showed great determination to reach the byline and cut the ball back for the striker.
However, this time, he was unable to get his foot behind the ball. The final chance fell to Robbie Keane. He found space in the box, but failed to get any power in his shot.
It had been a bright start to the match from Neil Lennon’s side and the chances kept coming. Samaras was next to try his luck. Picking the ball up 30 yards out, he drifted infield before firing a dipping shot towards the far corner which Cammy Bell had to push away.
On the other wing Aiden McGeady looked a real threat. After 13 minutes, he skipped past three players before sending a wicked cross into the box which Fortune nodded over.
Once again a feature of Celtic’s play had been Keane’s impressive movement. From a long ball, he showed excellent control to get away from Simon Ford and hare in on goal. But when ready to pull the trigger, the ball spun away from the Irishman.
It looked a matter of time before Celtic would open the scoring and Jimmy Calderwood tried to stem the attacking flow, by bringing off Marc Burchill and replacing him with the more defensive James Fowler.
However, Celtic continued to pile on the pressure. Naylor swung in deep cross from the left and Fortune’s header drifted wide.
Just when it looked like Kilmarnock would survive the first-half onslaught, Keane broke the deadlock with a wonderful individual effort in the 36th minute.
Collecting a pass on the edge of the area, he spun past Simon Ford and nutmegged Scott Severin before lifting the ball over Bell into the net.
That sparked the visitors into a rare foray forward. After a corner was cleared to the edge of the area, Severin fired wildly over.
And it was Celtic who could have added to their lead before the break. McGeady skipped inside Fowler and his low shot hit the inside of the far post before spinning along the line.
The visitors made one more change at the break as they searched for a route back into the contest. Another striker, Chris Maguire, stayed in the dressing room. He was replaced by Danny Invincible.
And the substitute did make an early impact. After making good progress down the left he sent in a low cross which was intercepted at the near post by Josh Thompson.
But any hopes they had of taking anything from the game were quickly extinguished when the Hoops struck twice in the space of four minutes.
When Keane picked up the ball inside the box, the there didn’t look to be any immediate danger, but he manufactured a yard of space and fizzed the ball past Bell into the far corner.
Scott Brown then grabbed his first goal of the season. McGeady jinked past his man and drilled a cross into the penalty area, and the Celtic captain stabbed the ball home from close-range.
The Hoops continued to pepper the Kilmarnock goal with shots, but the visitors pulled one back with 17 minutes remaining. Bryson tried to throw in a deep cross, but it spun off his foot and looped over Artur Boruc at the back post.
That gave the Rugby Park side a glimmer of hope and Alan Russell nearly made it a more nervy ending, crashing a shot off the bar from 25 yards in the 84th minute.
However, McGeady could have also stretched the Hoops’ lead in the closing moments, when he engineered some space on the edge of the area but saw his shot cannon off the bar.
It didn’t matter in the end though, as Lennon secured a winning start as Celtic manager.
celticfc.net
A great start for Lenny ally
👍