Scottish Premier League: Celtic return to top after late penalty goal by Daryl Murphy; beat Motherwell 1-0
A second-half goal by Daryl Murphy from the penalty spot was enough to send Celtic to the top of the Scottish Premier League on goal difference.
The Irish striker, who has been a fan of Celtic since his childhood, coolly clipped his penalty kick past Darren Randolph on the seventy-fourth minute after Shaun Maloney was brought down by Steven Saunders, who was shown the red card for his foul.
The visitors were by far the better side on the night. However, their nervy style of play and less-than-convincing performance made the crowd seem anxious at times, who expressed their disapproval throughout the game.
Despite the team winning the match, the cheers of joy at full-time were mixed with a lot of strong boos from fans who were not satisfied with the poor performance that their side had given.
Both the teams were looking to overcome the fact that they weren't in any European competitions this season. They both made a bright start to tonight's game.
John Sutton headed just off the mark in the second minute of the game, while on the other end, Randolph did brilliantly to keep Maloney out from close range.
Maloney even saw an early free-kick from the edge of the box clip the top of the cross bar. Soon after, Randolph was called into action again after Murphy took a shot that took a heavy deflection on its way to the goal.
All of this happened inside the opening ten minutes. Soon after that, though, the game took a couple of steps backwards.
Forrest was playing in the place of Efrain Juarez tonight, who along with Biram Kayal and Lukasz Zaluska couldn't manage to be fit in time for the game after the team’s four-nil loss against Utrecht midweek.
The second half started with Celtic trying to mount the pressure once again, and they got the best chance when Daniel Majstorovic headed Emilio Izaguirre’s corner just over the inside of the post.
Celtic then started banging on Motherwell's door; however, the final delivery seemed to be lacking throughout.
Samaras was received with a lot of jeers from the visiting fans, while Paddy McCourt's entrance was received with a lot of cheers due to his more direct and simple approach to playing the game.
Maloney soon received the ball after a defensive clearance and ran with the ball into the opposition half; however, Saunders hacked down the player, saw a red and gifted the visitors a penalty.
On his first start for Celtic, Murphy clinically put the spot kick away. He sent Randolph the wrong way and put it into the opposite side of the net.
Motherwell never seemed to recover from that blow and in the final sixteen minutes, they seemed like a team that had lost all hope and desire to go on. Celtic, however, went on to see their third win in three games and the team is yet to concede a goal in the league.
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