Celtic Fail To Profit From 'Gers Loss To The 'Well

Celtic 1 Dundee United 1

Celtic failed to take advantage of Rangers' draw with Motherwell, drawing 1-1 with a 10-man Dundee United on Saturday morning.

Manager Tony Mowbra left the team unchanged, though Niall McGinn made his debut, replacing the suspended Aiden McGeady.

Dundee opened the scoring in just the sixth minute when Goodwillie fired the ball past a helpless Artur Boruc from just a few yards out.

Celtic recovered well and started applying pressure, with Shaun Maloney hitting a wild ball over the bar from a corner.

The equalizer came in the 17th minute, after Scott McDonald got his head to Danny Fox's free-kick, directing the ball into the net.

Scott Brown had a good call for a penalty about quarter of an hour later but the refereee waved play on.

McDonald had another good chance a few minutes later after Maloney broke down the wing and fired across a good pass, but his shot rebounded off the crossbar for a corner.

Celtic kept the pressure up in the second half, but were unable to take advantage of their chances, with McGinn and Samaras (who had a goal disallowed for offside) both coming close.

Dundee United's Scott Robertson was sent off as the clock ticked down for a careless tackle on Georgios Samaras just outside United's box.

Maloney took the free-kick but his shot was sent wide for a goal-kick.

Celtic had two good calls for a penalty in extra time, but despite the fact that both Gary Kenneth and Darren Dodds appeared to handle the ball, the referee refused to point to the spot.

Mowbray was complementary of his opponents, saying, "I think they're a decent side. They have good athleticism and energy in their team," but he noted that Celtic had suffered due to the fact that so many of the players had served on international duty over the past week: "We always knew it was going to be a difficult game. We've had 15 players away all across the world, they haven't a single player away and they've had two weeks to prepare for it.

"So it was always going to be a tough day for us.

"I thought the players showed a fantastic attitude and kept going right to the death.

"Samaras's goal looks like a good goal, and a handball that mystified the whole stadium - but there you go, that's football."

New-signing Marc-Antoine Fortune will be out of action for up to two months after picking up a knee injury in the Champions League play-off against Arsenal at the Emirates.

The 29-year-old, who has scored two goals in four games for the club, is expected to miss all of the first three Europa League games (starting this Thursday) and the Old Firm clash in early October.

Scott Brown is reported to be seeing a specialist in order to deal with an ankle injury that may disrupt his season.

The midfielder had ankle surgery in June though he is playing on despite being in pain.

Celtic manager Tony Mowbray said: "For all our peace of minds, we're going to have to get clarification on what the problem is.

"It's dragging on too long. But, by his nature, he wants to play in every game and doesn't want to miss training.

"In the meantime, I've got to balance the boy not wanting to miss a game against us needing him in March if we're still in a very tight league race.

"I'd rather have 100% of Scott Brown for X amount of the season than have him at 75% for the whole season."