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Motherwell 0-2 Celtic
- Author, Andy Campbell
- Role, 91热爆 Sport Scotland
Celtic replaced Motherwell as Scottish Premier League leaders with a dominant victory at Fir Park.
Gary Hooper fired the visitors ahead and Adam Cummins' own goal typified Motherwell's first-half struggle.
Image source, SNS
Cummins' misery continued when he was sent off for fouling Kris Commons but the resulting penalty attempt by Scott Brown was saved by Darren Randolph.
Motherwell never looked likely to score and, but for Randolph, would have suffered a heavier defeat.
They slip a point behind Celtic with Kilmarnock, St Mirren and Hibernian two points behind the new pace-setters.
Manager Stuart McCall had criticised the Lanarkshire side for their performance in the midweek cup defeat by Rangers and, though they started brightly, Celtic soon took control.
James Forrest slipped a pass through to Hooper, whose shot on the turn was saved by Randolph and Brown's low drive was also saved by the goalkeeper.
Piercing diagonal balls to Hooper gave Motherwell further headaches with Randolph having to race off his line to clear moments before Zaine Francis-Angol made an excellent block on a goalbound shot.
But the next searching pass to Hooper by Commons took out the home defence completely and this time the striker found the net with a composed finish.
And it got better for Celtic when Brown received yet another ball in behind the jaded home defence and his low centre was diverted past Randolph by Cummins.
There was no let-up from Celtic at the start of the second half and, when Commons got goal-side of Cummins, the defender always looked liable to concede the penalty.
The defender was promptly dismissed for the clumsy trip but, for the second week in a row, Brown had his spot-kick saved.
It was a rare blemish in a commanding display from the Celtic captain, who was denied again by Randolph before making way for the fit again Georgios Samaras.
Randolph's display was the highlight of Motherwell's performance with Emilio Izaguirre and Victor Wanyama also foiled by the Republic of Ireland cap in a Celtic-dominated last half-hour.