Composed Hartson makes the difference for Celtic

Celtic 1 Hibernian

It was the kind of day when only one man was capable of holding 57,000 people spellbound. Sadly, Jimmy Johnstone no longer kicks a ball.

The winger from Celtic's European Cup-winning team of 1967 was given a standing ovation before the victory over Hibernian yesterday, a tribute as much to being named the club's greatest-ever player as his battle against Multiple Sclerosis.

John Hartson's name is unlikely to be in any such future poll, but the Welsh striker contributed the decisive goal which restored Celtic's equilibrium, after losing their residence at the top of the Scottish Premier League to Rangers.

Hartson's 31st-minute finish was bereft of the kind of footwork Johnstone once employed, but it had the same effect, lifting the fans on to theirs as Celtic secured an unconvincing victory.

The shock of last Tuesday's defeat at Motherwell, which ended the champions' perfect record this season, had not subsided for Celtic's huge support. It was the first time Martin O'Neill's side had lost a league game in 2002, and Celtic could have been forgiven for thinking another bad day at the office was imminent when Magnus Hedman injured himself in the warm-up and had to be replaced by Jonathan Gould. The understudy goalkeeper was given a scare after 12 minutes when Hibernian's captain, Iain Murray, conjured up a dipping volley which clipped the top of the crossbar.

O'Neill had made five changes from the team which lost to Motherwell, and one of those, Hartson, came close to to justifying his inclusion at Chris Sutton's expense when he was brought down by Yannick Zambernardi as the Welshman turned in the box, but no penalty was awarded.

Murray came close with another volley, before Hartson broke the deadlock after 31 minutes. Ulrik Laursen, eager to atone after culpability in midweek and against the club which pocketed £1.25m for his sale last month, broke from the back and threaded a pass to Larsson, who cutely stepped over the ball to allow it to run into the path of Hartson, whose composed right-foot finish beat the goalkeeper, Tony Caig.

With the pressure off, Larsson soon looped a header just over the bar while Caig made a superb one-handed save from Bobo Baldé's downward header.

Celtic's superiority was hardly clear-cut and the raw nerves were exposed eight minutes into the second half, when Murray went down in the box as Jackie McNamara tried to retrieve his short back-pass. The referee, Dougie McDonald, interpreted the Celtic midfielder's slide as legal.

Just a minute later, though, McDonald was the villain of Parkhead after Baldé swept Hartson's knock-down into the net, but was rightly ruled offside. Hibernian refused to be subdued. Zambernardi thrashed a long-range shot over Gould's bar, before the French defender did what he is paid to, rescuing his team with a sliding tackle on Larsson as the striker raced towards Caig.

Caig then made another save from Larsson before the arrival of Shaun Maloney, with eight minutes left, injected some zest into Celtic, and the substitute came close with a curling free-kick which the keeper gratefully clutched.