Considering the circumstances of midweek, as well as the top class performance of attack-minded Dundee, it was a fantastic victory for Celtic today.
Celtic, in truth, played bad. Too many players were suffering on low confidence but it's games like this that wins leagues.
Magnus Hedman was rightly dropped from the squad, and Shaun Maloney was given a starting place, in for the injured John Hartson.
Dundee have always caused us problems over the last few years, and their intent was clear when Nacho Novo found himself one on one with Rab Douglas, only to force a good save from the Scottish number one.
As Celtic looked for the opener, Henrik Larsson came closest, after a neat knock down from Chris Sutton. And it was the King who found the net, on 16 minutes. An Alan Thompson cross was well dummied by Chris Sutton and Larsson neatly finished with his left foot.
It looked from then on that we'd be seeing another Parkhead riot, but Dundee failed to cave in like so many teams do at Celtic Park.
Dundee responded with what will be a contender for Goal of the Season, by former Celt Mark Fotheringham. Bobo Balde stupidly lunged into a challenge and his header fell to the feet of Fotheringham, whose 30-yard drive left Douglas helpless.
Dundee should have taken the lead through Nacho Novo, who was running riot with the Celtic defence. Rab Douglas once again had to produce a good save, and the score was 1-1 at half time.
No changes were made at the interval, and we hoped that Celtic would step it up a gear, but the passing remained poor and the Bhoys failed to look as if they had ideas. Bobo Balde was losing the place, and Shaun Maloney just wasn't taking the game by the scruff of the neck. He has had many chance this season but he has failed to show great form in any of his starts.
Maloney was swapped with Jamie Smith, who took his place on the right wing.
Celtic took the lead on 70 minutes, when Alan Thompson crossed once again, Chris Sutton knocked the ball across the face of goal, and Bobo Balde charged forward with a diving header into the net. Today showed how badly we missed Alan Thompson on Wednesday night but it was his only stupid fault.
John kennedy replaced the tired Johan Mjallby, and added the third goal. There was a scramble in the box from a corner, and JFK bundled the ball into the net.
But of course this is Celtic, and it wouldn't be right if there wasn't a goalkeeping error in the game something would have been wrong. A last minute Dundee corner was totally missed by Big Rab, and Hernandez kicked the ball home. In truth, it was Douglas' third or fourth mess-up of the day from crossed balls.
Nowadays our 'keepers seem to be competing as to who can mess up the most, and it's almost neck and neck between Hedman and Douglas. It seems only a matter of time before young Marshall gets a start in the league.
After all in was a good three points and hopefully this will be our bad day for the season.
Celtic:
Douglas - 7
Balde - 6
Varga - 6
Mjallby - 7 (Kennedy - 8)
Lennon - 9
Petrov - 6
Thompson - 7
Miller - 7
Maloney - 6 (Smith - 6)
Larsson - 7
Sutton - 9
Celtic-Mad Man of the Match: Neil Lennon