Gallacher denies Celtic to keep it nil all

HT Celtic 0 Dundee United 0

Dundee United keeper Paul Gallacher pulled off an excellent first-half save to deny Henrik Larsson an early goal in his final competitive match at Parkhead this afternoon.

The much-improved Scotland goalkeeper produced an acrobatic one-handed save in the 12th minute to prevent the prolific Swede’s header from nestling in the corner of the net.

But it was not all Celtic at half-time in the final league match of the season as United threatened on a number of occasions in an end-to-end spectacle.

Larsson showed his unselfish side in the 21st minute to coolly back-heel the ball into the path of Stephen Pearson, after Sutton had flicked on Thompson’s chip into the area, but the young player of the season’s powerful shot was well pushed away by Gallacher.

After his earlier mishap, Marshall comfortably dealt with David McCracken’s well-executed turn and shot.

Larsson was given a difficult chance to score on the half hour when Petrov picked him out in the area but he screwed his right-footed shot wide of the post.

Gallacher again frustrated the champions in the 36th minute but he was not quite as convincing as before as he pushed McNamara’s low long-range effort behind.

The Celtic man was back to doing what he does best in the 38th minute in getting ahead of Samuel in defence to put Robson’s cross behind for a corner.

Pearson’s cross-shot was deflected wide before he came agonisingly close to converting McNamara’s ball across the face of goal.