Motherwell 0 Celtic 2
John Hartson and Alan Thompson gift-wrapped an eight-point Christmas lead over Rangers for Martin O'Neill as Celtic returned to form with a comfortable victory at Fir Park today.
The Glasgow giants had been suffering from a European hangover from their defeat in Lyon with a far-from-convincing win over Dundee and a CIS Insurance Cup defeat at the hands of Hibernian. But they picked themselves up to inflict the fourth consecutive defeat on Terry Butcher's youngsters.
Celtic always looked in command even though Robert Douglas, who continued in place of Magnus Hedman, had to save a controversial Derek Adams penalty to keep them ahead.
They made the perfect start by taking the lead after only two minutes. Scott Leitch got a slight deflection on Chris Sutton's cross, after Thompson's pass, and Hartson arrived at the back post to poke the ball into the back of the net from two yards out.
Motherwell continued to struggle soon after but their fortunes looked to have taken a turn for the better midway through the half when David Clarkson won his side a dubious penalty.
Mjallby won the ball as the player went down in the area but justice was done as Douglas acrobatically saved Adams' spot-kick.
Celtic were dealt a blow just five minutes before the interval as Larsson, who along with Hartson and Sutton shrugged off injury to play, trudged off to be replaced by Jamie Smith.
Motherwell started the second half much better than the first and Alex Burns should have done better in the 48th minute. Steven Hammell and Stephen Pearson combined to release the former Partick striker into space inside the box but he got caught in two minds and his weak shot was saved by Douglas.
Celtic wrapped up the points in the 71st minute after Craigan had been booked for a foul on Petrov, just outside the box, and Thompson stepped up to curl a superb left-foot effort over the wall and into the corner of the net.
PA