Celtic crush Partick Thistle to make it three SPL titles in a row
Celtic’s Anthony Stokes, centre, celebrates the opening goal with Leigh Griffiths and Scott Brown. Photograph: Danny Lawson/PA
Few of Celtic’s previous 44 league titles have arrived as straightforwardly as this one but, according to the old adage, you can only beat what is in front of you. Neil Lennon’s players have done that efficiently and ruthlessly, landing Celtic their latest championship with seven games to this 27th victory in 31 matches – with just one defeat, away to Aberdeen – was fairly typical, as Celtic were contained to one early goal in the first half before pulling away in the second. The highlights for the champions were a double for Anthony Stokes and a first goal for the 17-year-old substitute Liam Henderson on a night he will always partick Thistle, needing a win to pull away from potential relegation problems, never looked likely to achieve their other aim of preventing Celtic from winning the title at Firhill. When they did score, six minutes from the end, the visitors responded with two more of their lennon thus became the fourth Celtic manager to win three successive titles, albeit that the last two have come without the inconvenience of having to play bitter rivals Rangers. That has inevitably devalued the achievement in the eyes of many, but Lennon said: “It’s breathtaking to win the championship. That’s nine since 2000-01 so the domination continues. You can see the progress the team is making. In the league the consistency of the performances has been fantastic. It’s what the Celtic public demand and the style of football we’re playing is very pleasing.”We lost seven games last season but the Champions League took a lot out of us. It did this season but we wanted to stay focused on being consistent. We’ll come back next year and try to improve on our cup form as well as our league form.”We’re an outstanding team and the club’s strategy is spot on. The players’ will to win is everything you could ask for as a manager and I’m very proud of them.”Lennon’s side took 150 seconds to get their night on its ultimately successful track. It was a ridiculously simple goal: the left-back Emilio Izaguirre took a pass from Kris Commons before cutting in and delivered a right-foot cross. The ball found Stokes standing on his own – but clearly onside – at the far post and the striker headed past Paul Gallacher at his leisure to notch his 100th goal in any realistic hope that Alan Archibald and his players had of a third successive home league win after having to wait until February for the
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