Krief, Smith's replacement won a free kick just outside the box following a body check from Davis, but Ellington's free kick was whipped just wide. Ellington and Brodie combined nicely before Ellington teed-up Krief who struck a good shot wide of Dootson's upright.
Sykes had moved back into defence to cover for the missing Hume, but somehow Seddon stole away from him, and as Flitcroft put the ball across the six yard box, Seddon was there to tap in.
The goal galvanised Celtic, and they looked the stronger team, clearly in the ascendancy. After playing some good stuff and not looking a man down, Brodie released Ellington with a perfectly weighted ball, and Ellington put the ball past Dootson, via a slight deflection off Davis, but Dootson wouldn't have reached it.
In the dying moments of the half, Celtic could have had a penalty as Brodie's whipped in cross was blatantly handled by ex-Celt German in the box, but as the officials missed it, Hyde got to half time with the scores level.
At the start of the second half, Davis slid through Winn conceding a free kick at the edge of the box, Prince stepped over it, and Ellington's curler struck the wall for a corner. Davis nodded it out for a second that Celtic couldn't convert. New signing Cayne Hanley was brought on after an impressive debut for the reserves on Saturday, with Prince making way. Celtic lost width, and shape and it allowed Hyde greater freedom.
Flitcroft was the main recipient of this seasonal goodwill gesture, and was put through with a long diagonal ball. One-on-one with Pettinger he looked certain to score but Pettinger got across and made an excellent block. The ball fell back to Flitcroft; Pettinger scrambled to his feet and made a second excellent block. Again the ball fell to Flitcroft and instead of taking another shot he lifted the ball to the back post so that Seddon coming in ahead of the trailing defenders had a simple nodded goal to put the home side back into the lead.
Brodie had the chance to equalise when Winn slid a ball through a crowded box and found him well, but there wasn't much time to take the shot, and it lacked the power to trouble Dootson. Brodie's second chance came from a free kick on Ellington by German. Dootson came through a crowd to claim the ball, but as he came down the head of Davis was in the way causing Dootson to spill the ball, Brodie swung at the loose ball but quick thinking from Clee denied him the space and Dootson collected the bouncing ball. Some good build up play involving Ellington and Hanley Brodie to get his third chance at an equaliser; it was a better shot, but still no trouble for Dootson.
The numbers were evened when Seddon received a second yellow for a cynical and blatant dive in the box (his first had been for a foul on Pettinger), but as Celtic attacked from the free kick, they were short at the back and German's long ball was picked up by Gedman who was forced wide by the rushing Pettinger. Instead of trying to round him, he lofted the ball to Wharton who had outpaced a visibly tiring Celtic to smash into an empty net.
Right at the death, Ellington forced Dootson into a good save when Ellington beat the offside trap to latch onto the return pass from Brodie, and poked it to Dootson's left only for the ex-Celtic keeper to get down well and gather it up.
Celtic's fitness had been put to the test in the second half, and it was not quite up to it, twice being caught short at the back and paying the price. This coupled with the team looking disorganised allowed Hyde to play as they wanted to throughout the second half. Celtic must do better in the next to derby matches.
