Olivier Ntcham’s second-half goal was enough to give an under-strength Celtic side a 1-0 Premiership win over Dundee.
The Celtic manager, Brendan Rodgers, reshuffled his team with one eye on their Champions League match at Bayern Munich in midweek, with the No2 goalkeeper Dorus de Vries and right-back Cristian Gamboa making their first appearances of the season.
The champions were held at bay in a goalless first 45 minutes but the 21-year-old French midfielder’s long-range drive just after the hour eventually extended Celtic’s unbeaten domestic run to 59 games and kept them top of the table over Aberdeen on goal difference.
“The players have been away, only came together on Friday, and we were a bit disjointed,” Rodgers told the BBC afterwards. “We showed quite a few moments of quality but needed to find the final ball more accurately. There is no doubting the spirit in the team. We’re into a run of games where there is a big impact physically on us.
“Champions do that bit extra. Dundee have been together for two weeks focusing on this game whereas our boys have been travelling all round the place [with their international teams] and still managed to get the result.”
It will certainly be a stronger Celtic team who face Bayern on Wednesday. The captain, Scott Brown, Stuart Armstrong and Jozo Simunovic are just short of full fitness following injury, while Mikael Lustig, Tom Rogic and Craig Gordon were rested after returning from international duty.
Amid the seven changes from the side which drew 2-2 with Hibernian in their last outing, Eboue Kouassi returned from a knee injury sustained against Kilmarnock at the start of the season to partner Ntcham in midfield.
The former Inverness defender Josh Meekings made his Dundee debut after battling back from a knee injury with AJ Leitch-Smith back in the side as Sofien Moussa and Kerr Waddell dropped to the bench.
Despite the disruption, Celtic had almost all the efforts on goal in the first half, starting in the fourth minute when the Dundee keeper Scott Bain tipped a Scott Sinclair drive past the post. Callum McGregor, Patrick Roberts, Leigh Griffiths, Ntcham and the stand-in captain Kieran Tierney all had attempts of various quality, to no avail.
The well-organised visitors moved forward as often as they could and with a degree of threat but De Vries, had little to do until the 33rd minute when he collected a weak shot from Leitch-Smith. The Hoops looked like they would get the breakthrough when Roberts set up McGregor 12 yards out but Bain was equal to his side-footed drive.
Celtic upped the tempo as the second-half unfolded. In the 58th minute Bain made a fine save from Roberts’ drive after the Manchester City loanee had slalomed through the Dundee defence, and he made an even better save a minute later when he denied Leigh Griffiths with his foot. Bain was eventually beaten by Ntcham, who thundered in a shot from 25 yards which swerved and dipped before beating the keeper.
The Tayside club looked to get quickly back on level terms and finished the game strongly. De Vries, who had last featured in September 2016 against Kilmarnock, made a fine save from Paul McGowan after he had been picked out by Kevin Holt and the Celtic No2 brilliantly parried a Roarie Deacon shot over the bar after the attacker had held off Dedryck Boyata. In the dying stages, De Vries saved from the substitute Faissal El-Bakhtaoui.
Dundee’s manager, Neil McCann, left Parkhead a disappointed man. “Yes Scott Bain had a couple of saves [to make] today,” he said. “But I think De Vries had better saves and he’s earned his side the three points instead of maybe being only one [point], which I felt we deserved at least.”
SCOTTISH ROUNDUP
Gary Mackay-Steven scored his first Premiership goal as Aberdeen kept pace with the Premiership leaders, Celtic, courtesy of a 1-0 home victory over Hibernian. Mackay-Steven put a controversial start to his Pittodrie career behind him to finish off a slick move in the 38th minute, and Aberdeen managed the rest of the game efficiently to move on to 23 points and behind the champions only on goal difference.
Kilmarnock put on a show for their new manager, Steve Clarke, as they collected their first league win of the season with a 2-0 victory over Partick. The former West Brom and Reading manager was named Lee McCulloch’s successor just hours before the Ayrshire men ran out at the Energy Check Stadium. Clarke watched from the Firhill directors’ box, with the Killie academy manager, Paul McDonald, in charge for the afternoon, as Kris Boyd and Adam Frizzel scored in a deserved win. The victory moves Killie off bottom position and increases the pressure on the Thistle manager Alan Archibald, whose side are now without a win in nine games.
Peter Hartley’s second-half winner saw Motherwell come from behind to beat a poor Hamilton 2-1 at the SuperSeal Stadium. Accies went ahead against the run of play in the first half through Giannis Skondras, but eventually fell to a fifth defeat on the spin when Andrew Rose capitalised expertly on a Skondras error at the other end to restore parity at half‑time, before Hartley tapped in after 51 minutes to cement a comfortable victory for Stephen Robinson’s side and send them fourth in the table.
Jamie Walker’s strike sealed a 2-1 win for 10-man Hearts as Owen Coyle’s first home game as Ross County manager ended in defeat. In a game peppered with 10 bookings, two of which saw Hearts midfielder Connor Randall sent off, Isma Goncalves shot Hearts ahead in a low-key opening period, but Davis Keillor-Dunn quickly replied for the Dingwall side. Walker put Hearts in front just before the hour mark with a cool finish in the area and they held on for three Ladbrokes Premiership points, despite a second booking ending the afternoon for Randall. Nial Briggs