It was the perfect response to the hammering in the Old Firm derby. In their first league game since the defeat to Rangers, Celtic tore apart Motherwell in the first half at Fir Park, scoring four excellent goals. It proved to the fans that they can turn on the style and like I said in my last piece for Armchair Celts, that the defeat to Rangers wasn’t as significant as some people made out. No trophies are won in August or September after all.

So, the game at Fir Park - let’s go through it. The Bhoys were off to a fantastic start when Shaun Maloney got on the end of a Scott Brown cross at the back post and tapped the ball home. It was Maloney’s first goal since returning to Celtic Park and his delight was clear to see. It was only the start of the fun though.

Four minutes later, Georgios Samaras got himself on the score sheet. The Greek striker slipped the ball past the Motherwell keeper after getting on the end of a Scott McDonald pass. Motherwell did then regain their composure somewhat but Celtic got their third after 24 minutes. After setting up Samaras for the second goal, McDonald grabbed a goal from himself, hitting a first time volley into the back of the net. It was now game over as far as the home side were concerned.

Celtic’s excellent first half performance was capped off in the 42nd minute when Samaras got his second of the game. A neat passing move was finished off by the former Manchester City man with a composed finish to give his side a 4-0 lead.

In the second half, Motherwell did pull two goals back, but the damage had already been done in the opening 45 minutes. It really was an excellent Celtic display. For the first time this season, they looked like a team who knew exactly what they were doing. Marc Crosas was impressive in midfield and the whole team had so much energy. Their passing ability was clear for all to see as well and that is encouraging.

I want to single out Samaras though. I thought he was superb. Not only did he get two goals to take his tally to five for the season, but his overall play illustrated his class. He is starting to prove that Gordon Strachan pulled off a real transfer coup by getting him to the club. On current form, I would happily place a lot of my football betting money on him being the top scorer in the team this season. In fact, I would like to see the football odds on him leading the scoring charts for the whole division come May next year.

So, overall I was very pleased with the performance. Things are slowly starting to come together and I still believe the league is there for the taking.

Finally for today, I wanted to mention the comments made by Manchester United manager, Sir Alex Ferguson. He has revealed that Aiden McGeady almost signed for the his club before he agreed to join Celtic. The Hoops took advantage of the fact that Scottish clubs can sign youngsters while they are still at school while English clubs must wait until they are 16.

It certainly seems that Ferguson rates him highly though and is rather bitter about missing out on his signature. He describes him as a ‘talented young footballer’ who could cause his team problems when the two sides meet in the Champions League this year. Let’s hope McGeady can make Ferguson regret not signing him even more when he helps Celtic to three crucial points against Man Utd on 21st October at Old Trafford. That would be sweet. Very sweet.