Aiden McGeady's suspension meant a place in the starting line-up for the first time for Niall McGinn and the Northern Ireland international produced a man-of-the-match performance against Dundee United. "I want to thank the manager for giving me my first start for Celtic," he said. "Tony Mowbray has been 100 per cent with me since he came to the club in the summer, he has spoken to me and told where I stand. He knows that I will give everything that I have for the team whenever I get my chance."
"He told me to get at United and use my pace and hopefully I did him proud." said the winger. "The fans were behind me from the start and I could feel them willing me to do well. Every time Andreas Hinkel got the ball I could hear them encouraging him to give it to me and that gave me a great lift. Hopefully I will be included in the squad for the Europa League game away to Hapoel Tel Aviv on Thursday, I would be over the moon if that was the case."
Back home in Donaghmore, County Tyrone, McGinn's friends and neighbours heard the news twenty-four hours before the game and that led to some hastily convened travel plans for some of them. "On Friday I told a few people back home that I was starting." said McGinn. "And my agent, Gerry Carlile, and a few people from my village booked flights right away to come and see the game. Afterwards I got lots of texts from people from Donaghmore, saying that they had watched the game in the local pub and were proud of me. So that has also given me a big boost."
Unfortunately McGinn's sparkling debut was not enough to earn the Celts all three points. David Goodwillie put United ahead in the sixth minute but Scott McDonald's header from a free kick pulled Celtic back level just a short time later. Georgios Samaras scored what looked like a perfectly good goal in the second half but it was controversially adjudged to be offside. A blatant hand-ball by United defender Dods in the closing minutes should have led to a penalty award but the referee just didn't want to make the call.