Celtic Back On Top

McDonald's Hat-Trick Puts Down Dundee United

By Tony Quinn

In last week's CIS insurance Cup win at Dundee, Celtic made three changes to the team beaten 3-2 at Hibernian, with Riordan, Evander Sno and John Kennedy coming in for Aiden McGeady, Paul Hartley and Jean-Joel Perrier Doumbe. Scott McDonald and Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink got the goals to put Celtic on the way to a 2-1.

On Saturday in the SPL, Scott McDonald was Celtic's hero bagging a hat-trick as the Hoops returned to the top league with a 3-0 win at home to Dundee Utd. However, Celtic may have to do without Dutch international Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink for the Champions League game at home to AC Milan after he limped off in the first half with an injury.

After the game the Australian revealed it was his first hat-trick as a professional. McDonald said: "It was my first senior hat-trick so it was something special and I will treasure it the rest of my life. Hopefully there will be more to come from me in my time at Celtic. I will get all the boys to sign the ball and put it somewhere in the house where everyone can see it. But I won't be putting it on Ebay - no chance of that!"

Gordon Strachan confirmed that Vennegoor of Hesselink's hamstring troubles are extremely likely to keep the forward out of the tie with AC Milan. "Jan suffered a hamstring injury after taking a shot and it doesn't look good. I think it's an outside chance for him. We will just get on with it. We have lost a lot of players over the last few weeks and we just get over it." Strachan said.

Mark Wilson will consult with world-renowned specialist Richard Steadman in the U.S. in a bid to recover from his latest injury. But Gordon Strachan was keen to point out that the right backs' trip to Colorado is purely precautionary. He said: "Mark will be going to Dr Steadman's just for a check up. Whatever I feel is nothing compared to how he feels because I do believe that, when I saw him at the beginning of last season, he could have walked into a lot of English Premier League sides and be a top player. But there's no doubts whatsoever that he will come back and play in many more Champions League games."

Peter Lawwell has described Celtic's new training ground as world class and something which would make the whole club proud. And as the $16million 50-acre complex at Lennoxtown, just outside Glasgow, prepared to open, Celtic's chief executive insisted it put down a statement to the rest of football about where Celtic now stand. First-team coach Tommy Burns, who was heavily involved in the project, boasted the top clubs in Europe would be envious of the set-up. Lawwell said: "We've built something the club can be proud of. It's quite stunning and unique. It's phase one and phase two will start in a number of years when we expand the facility. We set out to build something the club can be proud of that is functional at the same time with facilities we have so badly lacked. It is world class and we can actually improve on it."

Celtic Park has been ranked as having the second-best atmosphere of any European football ground - behind Liverpool's Anfield. Property consultants Drivers Jonas Sport conducted a survey of football fans, who were also asked a number of other questions, including some about security, food and transport. Celtic Park was voted the sixth-best overall stadium in European competition, behind the homes of Man Utd, Arsenal, Barcelona, Newcastle and Man City.

AC Milan legend Ruud Gullit admits he's a big fan of Celtic's Japanese midfielder Shunsuke Nakamura. "He is the team's really good player," Gullit said ahead of Milan's visit to Parkhead this week. "He has the ability and the vision and I like the fact that he is able to show these qualities in Europe."