Celtic kept their points to the maximum in a scrap of a game which we are once again going to see a few of this season. Three players were sent off between the two teams, with Celtic being reduced to 9 men, losing Sutton and McNamara for their second bookings.

Celtic started the first half encouragingly with a well taken goal by Stilian Petrov. McNamara passed to Petrov and he hit it crisply into the left hand side.

The game looked wound up later in that half when Motherwell's John Davies was sent off when he pulled back Petrov and received a second yellow card and was subsequently sent off.

Celtic looked likely to improve their lead early in the second half when the visitors seemed worn down by Celtic's pressure. There were several near misses in this half from Larsson and Sutton but no more goals.

Some dubious referee decisions made us angry in this half and this seemed to rub off on some of the players. McNamara was booked twice in two minutes for bad tackles. And later on Sutton was booked twice for tackles on Strong and sent off too.

Motherwell should have got another player sent off several minutes later when McCulloch kicked out at Stephane Mahe and got off lightly with a yellow card.

However, at the end of the day, we got what we wanted, three points. And hopefully the smaller squad will overcome Kilmarnock and come back rejuvenated for the first Old Firm!