Alan Cochrane @ Celtic Park

As would be expected after recent results and press coverage, Celtic started with all guns blazing, and Killie were under the cosh right from the start. An initial Celtic onslaught looked to have been handled by the visitors, with Bell having a decent early save from McDonald, and although Wright and O'Leary were struggling to manage the Celtic attacks, Killie did try to push forward. With only 12 minutes gone though, it was Wright who was skinned by the brilliant McGeady, with the winger jinking to his right before crashing a shot across Bell, and inside the back post.

That gave Celtic all the confidence they needed, and McGeady, McDonald and Samaras began to really torment the Killie defence. Samaras beat Wright and passed when he should have shot, McCourt had a run and shot wide, and Bell had a point blank save from McDonald after Samaras had found him with a cross. The inevitable came after 32 minutes though when Hinkel charged up the right, crossed from the bye line, and Samaras gave Bell no chance with a bullet header.

Before the interval, Kevin Kyle had Kilmarnock's first chance when a corner from Invincibile wasn't collected by the keeper, Kyle got it back out to the Aussie, but headed the return cross past the post.

Killie made a double change at half time with Hay and Fernandez coming on for Sammon and Invincibile, and immediately the visitors looked more balanced. In fact within 10 minutes of the restart they had created three half decent chances. First it was Kyle knocking a ball down to Fernandez, but the Spaniard under pressure put his lob over, then Kyle himself had a brace of chances, heading them both over the bar.

Goals for Kilmarnock both sides of the interval would obviously have made a difference, but Celtic weren't going to give away further chances. Tony Mowbray obviously felt changes were required when he sent on Fortune and McGinn for McDonald and McCourt, while Flannigan replaced Skelton for Killie.

The change by the Celtic manager certainly worked, because an inch-perfect defence splitting pass from Hinkel found McGinn, and the substitute lashed it past Bell, giving the keeper no chance. With 9 minutes left, Bell had a wonderful one-handed diving save from McGeady, and then another good stop from Fortune.

The last five minutes looked more like three and in, as Cameron Bell made one desperate save after another, and any that squirmed past the keeper was blocked away by one desperate defender after another.

After the game, Jim Jefferies was obviously disappointed, but was the first to say that Celtic certainly deserved the victory, and could have scored even more goals; in fact they could have been out of sight in the first half hour. The second half was better, but with us pushing forward, if it hadn't been for Cameron Bell, they could have scored more at the end. JJ's final word? We mustn't get too down over this. We're only three points off the top six.

Celtic: Zaluska, Hinkel, Caldwell, NGuemo, McDonald (Fortune), Samaras, Fox, Crosas, McCourt (McGinn), Loovens, McGeady (Zheng)

Kilmarnock: Bell, Fowler, Wright, Bryson, Taouil, Invincibile (Hay), Skelton (Flannigan), O'Leary, Kyle, Sammon (Fernandez), Hamill

Referee: Willie Collum