Motherwell close door on Celtic's shot

Motherwell 0 Celtic 0 Attendance: 12,394

THIS always looked like the block on which Celtic might stumble. In Motherwell they faced the division's form side, winners of the last four games without conceding a goal, though still fighting a relegation battle.

Back in Glasgow, Rangers were beating Falkirk and looked to be heading towards their eighth title in a row. It may be academically still alive but all in the stadium yesterday knew that this was really the end of Celtic's title dreams. Questions may be asked about the relegation of John Collins to the bench. Even when his replacement Brian McLaughlin was substituted in the second half, Tommy Burns turned to Morten Wieghorst for the wide left role and Collins' stay at Parkhead may, like their title challenge, now be over.

Motherwell gave a sign of their intentions in the second minute when Rob McKinnon turned past Tosh McKinlay and shot over from a clear sight of goal. Celtic started nervously, however. Without the suspended Jackie McNamara at left-back Peter Grant covered, but never emulated, the youngster's overlapping runs. With Phil O'Donnell taking an attacking midfield role Paul McStay was allowed to sit very deep and delivered some penetrating passes, the finest finding Simon Donnelly who shot wide with his weaker left foot after 25 minutes.

But their front men were never allowed time on the ball from a Motherwell side unrecognisable from that which was beaten in Glasgow in January. Jamie Dolan was immense on the right, allowing nothing past while prompting Motherwell to attack on the break. In midfield Paul Lambert showed some outrageous skills playing keepie-uppie past O'Donnell in the 24th minute, setting up Alex Burns who rounded the keeper but ended up too wide to threaten the goal.

Eight minutes before the break O'Donnell lunged with a two-footed tackle on Dolan. An impromptu wrestling match ensued, stopped only by a clash of heads with Dolan coming off the worst and O'Donnell's name entering the referee's book.

Celtic knew that things were not going their way. As soon as the second half started McStay was sprinting to retrieve the ball for throw-ins, but the urgency did not help their play. They opened themselves to danger as they tried to press forward. Eddie May was unlucky when he squeezed through Hughes and Boyd only to screw the ball wide after 66 minutes. Then Brian Martin put a header over the bar with only a quarter of an hour remaining. But Celtic eventually created chances. Wieghorst should have scored when, unmarked, he headed a Andreas Thom cross wide from five yards.

They even had the ball in the net when McStay unleashed one of his powerful drives which slapped off the keeper on to the crossbar and Pierre van Hooijdonk followed up to net the rebound. Unfortunately for Celtic he was offside.

The fans who are normally the noisiest in the land were silent and as far as this Premier season is concerned the music is over, turn out the lights.