What a terrible game, only 24,953 people deemed it worthwhile to come alone and cheer the bhoys on.
Falkirk had been beaten 8-1 by us at the same stage of this competition last year...never looked remotely like a repeat of that.
With Neil Lennon suspended, fit-again Chris Sutton returned to the side in the midfield holding role.
Craig Beattie and Shaun Maloney replaced the injured Alan Thompson and rested Hartson. The first half started and finished without any real chances being created, Celtic had no focus to their attack up front and only Maloney's attempted runs at the Falkirk defence created any real interest.
Falkirk on the other hand played some neat football, their game plan being run by my man of the match Russell Latapy, still they also created very little in the first half. I honestly at that point could not see us scoring a goal.
The second half started off like the first half, until Gow seemed to get the ball off Sutton and with most of the Celtic defence surrounding him he fired a shot past Boruc into the far corner
Celtic 0-1 Falkirk 54 mins Eh, this was not supposed to happen.
Wee Gord watching from the sidelines must have agreed we did not look like scoring and replaced Beattie with Hartson on 61 mins.
Coincidence or not Celtic scored straight away through Zurawski, and continued to pile presure on with some fine saves from the Falkirk goalkeeper..at this point for me the game had changed, we took control with a clear focus as to how we would score and I thought from that point we would win.
Celtic 1-1 Falkirk 62 mins
Ok the game went into extra time where a Hartson header won it for us, but we were creating chances hitting the woodwork a couple of times as well.
Celtic 2-1 Falkirk 94 mins
Is Hartson the most unappreciated player ever to play for Celtic?
Celtic 2 Falkirk 1 AET