Mowbray's marauderscreate a Celtic blueprint
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Your support makes all the difference.Hibernian 2 Celtic 2
Celtic are mortal after all. The champions dropped their first points of the season in the Scottish Premier League at Easter Road yesterday, as they found a feisty Hibernian side almost too hot to handle.
With the trauma of Barcelona not out of their system, Martin O'Neill's side had to come back twice just to gain a draw in a torrid encounter that had Tony Mowbray, the Hibernian manager, insisting this was a blueprint for others to follow.
"I hope that this is an inspiration to the rest of the SPL," declared Mowbray. "We have shown that we can get close to Celtic, and other teams should not fear the Old Firm." Mowbray's team looked as if they were going to inflict the first away defeat in the league upon Celtic in 17 months after they went in front from Bobo Balde's own-goal after just eight minutes, as the giant Celtic defender sliced a cross from Steven Whittaker past his own keeper, David Marshall.
Celtic struggled to contain the Hibs forwards, Garry O'Connor and Derek Riordan, and when they equalised it was against the run of play. A backpass by Guillaume Beuzelin was pounced on by Juninho and his cutback was steered in by Henri Camara.
However, Hibernian were back in front within two minutes. Riordan combined with David Murphy for the latter to race into Celtic's box and sweep a firm shot past Marshall for his first goal for the Edinburgh club.
Seconds before the interval, a sublime backheel by Alan Thompson released Juninho whose low cross was stabbed in by the lurking John Hartson. Celtic camped in Hibernian's territory in the second half but other than a bad miss by Camara, they gave the champions no encouragement to find a winner.
Goals: Balde og (8) 1-0; Camara (33) 1-1; Murphy (35) 2-1; Hartson (45) 2-2.
Hibernian (4-4-2): Si Brown; Whittaker, Caldwell, Murray, Murphy; Sc Brown (Dobbie, 12, Fletcher, 82), Beuzelin, Glass, Shiels (Shields, 86); O'Connor, Riordan. Substitutes not used: Brown, Venus, McCluskey, Notman.
Celtic (3-5-2): Marshall; Varga, Balde, Valgaeren; Petrov, Lennon, Sutton (Agathe, 58), Juninho (Pearson, 71), Thompson; Camara, Hartson. Substitutes not used: Hedman, Laursen, Wallace, McGeady, Cuthbert.
Referee: M McCurry.
Attendance: 13,500.
Man of the match: Murray.
Booked : Hibernian: Murray. Celtic: Lennon, Varga.
* Rangers scraped a 1-0 win over Premiership newcomers Inverness to relieve some of the pressure on manager Alex McLeish. A first-half goal from Dado Prso lifted Rangers into third place and cut Celtic's advantage to five points
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