Scottish League Cup Final/ Celtic 3 Dunfermline 0: Gordon Strachan has a considerable distance to go before he can enter the pantheon of great Celtic managers, but he is at least some way towards emulating the success of many of his predecessors having won his first trophy yesterday.
Celtic's victory in the League Cup final over Jim Leishman's Dunfermline, which was not quite as straightforward as many had predicted, represents the first part of a near-certain trophy double in Strachan's first season at Parkhead.
The Scottish Premier League title will follow within weeks, but for now the former Southampton and Coventry manager would be entirely justified in taking a reflective stance on a successful campaign to date.
Two of Strachan's signings - Maciej Zurawski and Dion Dublin - were on the scoresheet, fittingly alongside Shaun Maloney, a young player whose career has blossomed beyond all expectation since the manager took over in the summer.
"It is the first trophy I have won and the first as a new group so hopefully there will be more to come," said Strachan. "The philosophy at the clubs I managed before was 90 per cent of the time just not to lose. Here, the philosophy is that you must win 100 per cent of the time, and it's always nice to win something."
The cup also represents Neil Lennon's first success as club captain. "It was everything I thought it would be," he said. "A magic moment, although I was really nervous."
After a dogged first-half performance, preceded by a rousing minute's applause as a tribute to the former Celtic winger Jimmy Johnstone who died on Monday, Dunfermline had cause to feel a sense of rough justice at being behind at the interval.
Leishman's team had coped admirably with the attacking threat of the champions elect, which made the spectacular aberration leading to the opening goal all the more surprising.
Aaron Labonte collided with his goalkeeper Allan McGregor as Zurawski looked to latch on to Maloney's deft through pass. As the Dunfermline players lay on the ground, the Polish striker walked the ball into an empty net.
The Fife outfit's challenge in the second half appeared to be helped by an injury to Roy Keane on the hour mark. The Cork man, who had performed with tenacity in the heart of Celtic's midfield, pulled up with an injury to his right hamstring when chasing a pass from Shunsuke Nakamura.
Strachan said that the damage is "not too bad", but after a week in which Keane mooted early retirement with persistent injury worries, the 34-year-old's final could not have ended in a more disappointing manner.
Keane's replacement, Dublin, came within inches of doubling Celtic's lead, but they had to wait until the 77th minute to score their second. Maloney, the one player on the field who displayed anything like the trickery that made Johnstone such a revered figure, curled a 25-yard free-kick past McGregor.
Dublin scored Celtic's third, his first for the club, from close range in the dying seconds after Paul Telfer's fine cut-back, but Dunfermline can be relieved the match represented a complete antithesis to the teams' last meeting - which Celtic won 8-1.
CELTIC: Boruc, Telfer, Balde, McManus, Wallace, Nakamura, Keane (Dublin 61), Lennon, Maloney, Zurawski, Petrov. Subs Not Used: Marshall, Thompson, Pearson, Varga. Goals: Zurawski 43, Maloney 76, Dublin 90.
DUNFERMLINE: McGregor, Shields, Scott Wilson, Ross (Donnelly 77), Andy Campbell (Derek Young 62), Mason, Thomson, Daquin (Tarachulski 84), Labonte, Makel, Burchill. Subs Not Used: Halliwell, Tod. Booked: Mason, Makel, Daquin.
Referee: S Dougal (Scotland).
