Dundee 1 Glasgow Celtic 2

Last updated : 17 March 2004 By Footymad Previewer

Celtic got back on the winning trail with a hard-fought 2-1 win at Dundee.

The hosts started well and with eight minutes on the clock Garry Brady's ball into the box was just too high for Nacho Novo to control and Stanislav Varga cleared the danger.

Ten minutes later only a brilliant save by Julian Speroni denied Alan Thompson giving Celtic the lead with a 20-yard shot from Henrik Larsson's pass.

Moments later a poor 12-yard shot by Larsson was easily dealt with by Speroni before Thompson's 18-yard freekick went straight into the Dundee wall.

Speroni was being kept busy in the home goal and he again denied Thompson the opener when he dived full length to save the midfielder's curling effort from the edge of the box.

Ten minutes before the break ex-Celt Mark Fotheringham forced David Marshall into his first save of the match when he curled a 25-yard free-kick towards the top corner.

On 38 minutes Celtic took the lead when they made a lightning break from a Dundee corner and within seconds Stilian Petrov was on the end of Stephen Pearson's pass and he stroked the ball past Speroni from 12 yards.

Just before the hour mark good play by Novo set up Fotheringham but his first-time shot went wide of the target.

With 68 minutes played Celtic went 2-0 up when Speroni's save from John Kennedy's header broke nicely for Larsson and the Swede scored from close range.

Marshall touched a low drive from Novo around the post a minute from time to deny the home team but they did grab a consolation in the final minute when Sebastian Kneissl collected a pass from Bobby Linn and fired high past Marshall from ten yards.