THREE days after Motherwell and Celtic had served up a breathless and controversial Betfred Cup final at Hampden Park, the Lanarkshire side welcomed their tormentors to Fir Park.
Once again, Motherwell felt officialdom had done them out of a place in history, with referee Willie Collum this time being cursed for awarding the 88th-minute penalty for a bump by Andy Rose on Callum McGregor which allowed them to equalise a Mikael Lustig own goal and leave town with their 66-match invincible domestic record intact.
It was merely the final twist of the knife that the man who stepped up to steer it into the top corner was Scott Sinclair, already the pantomime villain for what they felt was something similar on Sunday.
Echoes of the first match were everywhere – Cedric Kipre was booed by the visiting fans, not least when he crunched James Forrest from behind early on, while Sinclair’s arrival from the bench was greeted with uproar.
The ankle injury committed by Kipre and sustained by Moussa Dembele limited Celtic’s French striker to a watching brief, while Sinclair was taken out of the firing line – until his late intervention.
Brendan Rodgers brought in Leigh Griffiths and Patrick Roberts, while his countryman Stephen Robinson brought Allan Campbell into the midfield mix and introduced wide men Deimnatas Petravicius and Elliott Frear.
Motherwell started well, with a Carl McHugh header dropping on to the roof of the net. Roberts had departed the fray injured after crumpling in innocuous fashion on the halfway line by the time the first genuine chance came along. His replacement Tom Rogic found Griffiths with an inspired cross-field pass, and it was laid back to McGregor, whose right foot shot was kicked clear by Trevor Carson, the first save of an inspired night by the goalkeeper.
As much as Celtic dominated territory and possession, they had little to show for a first half where they were made to feel decidedly uncomfortable.
Gordon rashly slapped away a free-kick – it led to a Kipre shot which was blocked – while a number of coins appeared to rain down on Scott Brown as he tussled with the likes of Campbell and Moult in front of the East Stand.
In first half stoppage time the ball was threaded to through to Kieran Tierney as a third-man running.
From all of eight yards, he was anticipating the ball hitting the back of the net, until Trevor Carson stuck out a paw, deflecting the ball downwards and over the bar.
Robinson bravely committed men to forward positions to force Celtic to go long, then dominated aerially when Gordon was forced to make a longer pass from the back. When the goalkeeper went walkabout, he only found Chris Cadden, who in turn found Moult, the striker’s acrobatic volley narrowly over.
Celtic fell behind with 12 minutes remaining when Celtic right-back Lustig knocked the ball into his own net as he tried to clear a Tanner free-kick.
There was still time for a Celtic equaliser, and like their 4-3 win here last season, they pushed on to try to break Motherwell hearts late on.
Rogic played in McGregor, who was defied twice more by Carson before the contact in the box which saw Collum point to the spot.
The remonstrations of the likes of Cadden were in vain as Sinclair hit the top corner to keep Celtic’s run intact.
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