Resilience is key to Celtic success

Dunfermline 0 - 1 Celtic

TWO factors above all others allowed Celtic to stand apart from all the others in the SPL - the Glasgow outfit's sheer resilience, and their will to win.

Manager Gordon Strachan is the first to admit that despite reaching the last 16 of the Champions League, where they were knocked out by eventual winners AC Milan, his side can be labelled good rather than great.

However, it has been Celtic's unerring ability to grind out a victory over the course of the past ten months which has seen them add the Tennent's Scottish Cup to their second successive SPL title.

On numerous occasions this season, Strachan's side have looked as if they have been there for the taking, only to confound everyone by snatching a seemingly implausible result.

It's a commodity which both Hearts and Hibs can appreciate - remember how the Tynecastle side looked set to strengthen their own credentials as title challengers last November, only to lost two last-gasp goals?

And recall how Celtic were apparently down and out as they trailed 2-0 at Easter Road, only to fight back and earn a point.

Such performances resulted in Strachan's players topping the pile by 12 points from arch-rivals Rangers in what, if truth be told, was a mundane championship.

Even in the Scottish Cup, Celtic's winning trait was undiminished. They came back with late, late goals to deny Inverness Caledonian a victory they felt was within their grasp.

So it should have come as no surprise to see Celtic, on a weekend in which the club celebrated the 40th anniversary of becoming the first British side to lift the old European Cup, grind out what proved to be their tenth 1-0 win of the season.

The winning goal, from the unlikeliest of sources, Jean-Joel Perrier Doumbe (or Joe Doumbe in Glasgow parlance), was truly fitting of what was a less than memorable final.

The on-loan French star threw his right boot at Craig Beattie's deflected cross to send the ball squirming into the far corner of Dunfermline goalkeeper Dorus De Vries' net.

It was the Rennes player's first-ever goal in senior football, and if he doesn't score again the nature of it will be lost in the mists of time, remembered only - as is George McCluskey's deflection in 1980 - as the strike which saw the Cup go to Celtic.

Just as Dunfermline's valiant bid to avoid relegation evaporated at the last, so too did their dream of lifting silverware for the first time in 40 years.

If Celtic's run to the final, other than that fright at the Caledonian Stadium, had been routine then the same couldn't be said of Dunfermline's, path.

The Pars defeated Rangers, Hearts and then Hibs as they belied their lowly standing in the League.

As Strachan said: "Had they won the Cup it would have been the best ever considering the teams they had to play. I cannot remember anyone beating these teams to get there."

Strachan made the point that his side's three SPL wins over Dunfermline had all been by a single goal, but he insisted that as the game looked as if extra-time would be required to settle the destination of the Cup, he felt more and more assured that it would be bound for Celtic Park.

While Dunfermline had the first chance, Mark Burchill dragging his shot wide when he should at least have hit target, there was the distinct impression that the Pars weren't fully convinced they could prove the adage that every cloud has a silver lining.

But as Jan Venegoor of Hesselink dived to head wide and Kenny Miller nodded meekly into the arms of De Vries, few Celtic fans would have been entirely sure that their side would finally emerge victorious.

Burchill's early miss - perhaps attributable to the fact he was starting his first match in three months - underlined the lack of firepower which had dogged the Fife club throughout the season, their 38 League games producing a miserly 26 goals.

As such, it was inevitable one goal in Celtic's favour could decide the match.

Doumbe's strike came as Dunfermline - without the suspended Gary Mason and the ineligible Jim O'Brien and missing Stephen Simmons and Greg Ross through injury - started to visibly tire.

Other than Doumbe's goal, the only other talking point was the removal of Celtic skipper Neil Lennon, playing his last match in a hooped jersey but unable to influence the game.

Lennon showed his disgust by heading straight for the dressing room, closely followed by Tommy Burns who, one assumes, used all his powers of persuasion to tempt the fiery Irishman back to the dugout.

At the final whistle, Lennon shared an embrace with Strachan before heading up those steps to claim the 11th trophy of his Celtic career.

Strachan made light of the incident, insisting the easy option for him would have been to leave Lennon on the pitch rather than make the changes he felt necessary, with Beattie having earlier replaced Miller.

He said: "He knows I have a hard job - I have to make decision for the team. It's not easy when you admire someone as much and when you are actually friends with them at the same time.

"He could have stayed on and we might have won 3-0, we'll never know. But I think it was the right call. It's better to make a decision than not make a decision. If you don't make a decision and it goes wrong then there is a problem.

"It was fantastic to allow him to leave the club as a double-winning captain. He's won the double three times with us and that's great for him."

While insisting he and his players didn't want to "glory in defeat," Pars boss Kenny insisted his side could hold their heads high as they prepare for life in the First Division, aiming to become the first club to bounce straight back up since Hibs did it in 1999.

He said: "I was very pleased with the players and how hard they worked. They put in a fantastic performance.

"But with the changes we had to make, some of them hadn't had a game for a while and perhaps we ran out of legs.

"Celtic are the champions, they are quality and we showed we are a good side. The players had a lot of heart and courage to try to bring a trophy back to East End Park for the first time in 40 years.

"We beat some great teams to get to the final, but Celtic were just that little bit too far."