KILLIE EARN A VITAL POINT ON THE ROAD
Last gasp Watson header ensures spoils are shared
CELTIC ................................... 1 KILMARNOCK ...................... 1
Ross Dunn at Celtic Park
Super sub David Watson reckons Killie should’ve taken home all three points from Celtic Park on Saturday.
The midfielder nodded home in extra time to ensure the visitors bagged a wellearned point on the road, but the19-year-old said the result was no surprise given the side’s performances againt the Old Firm this season.
Watson said: “We go into these wanting to win, believing we could win because we’re good enough to do that and we’ve shown that this season that we can beat both Celtic and Rangers so we had every belief in ourselves that we were going to come here and win so it’s no surprise that we came here and got a point because we showed it earlier in the season and we probably deserved more from the game.”
Celtic took the lead after 32 minutes when Kyogo Furuhashi flashed a header across the face of goal.
The hosts looked the more dangerous team in the first half and were ultimately rewarded for their efforts.
Killie had a chance to equalise ten minutes before the interval after a Matt Kennedy cross was swung into the box and a bullet header from Liam Donnelly was bound for goal but was fortuitously halted by Hart.
Moments later and Marley Watkins had a penalty claims waved away after contesting a challenge with Stephen Welsh in the box.
Celtic had the chance to double their lead in the final minute of injury time as Matt O’Reily followed up his own rebounded shot with a header towards goal but Corrie Ndaba cleared the ball off the line and the hosts took their single goal lead into the break.
Derek McInnes’ men looked the sharper of the two sides after the intervaland were unlucky not to draw level earlier.
Donnelly went close again with his head in what was one of Killie’s best chances of the game after Danny Armstrong launched a free-kick in from the touchline on the right on 71 minutes.
And with 15 minutes to go, McInnes threw the kitchen sink at the game and after adding James Balagazi to the mix, brought on Greg Stewart and Kevin van Veen with Watson and Fraser Murray joining the reinforcements eventually too.
It didn’t take long for van Veen to look dangerous as he latched on to a ball on the right side with his ball into the box finding Watson, who fired in to the side netting. Eventually it was this period of sustained pressure that resulted in Killie grabbing a late equaliser to take down the M77.