John Reed was forced into making a few changes to his starting line up and elected to give a first start to Gary Kharas, in place of the suspended Jody Banim, and he repayed Reedy's faith in a promising debut.

However, it would be unfair to single one player out in what was all round an exceptional team performance.

Stafford's goal coming as early as it did in the third minute had just a hint offside of about it or so it seemed as Mark Barnard lead the vehement protests to the match official. Thompson steering the ball home.

The fact that Celtic lost by a single goal to the league leaders is a measure of just how well they play against such sides. On balance, they probably deserved a draw but football is a game of fact not what ifs and the truth is Stafford scored the only goal that counted.

Yes, they can point to a couple of refereeing decisions they felt went against them but no referee goes into a game trying to make mistakes and perhaps teams at the top of the table get the rub of the green a little more anyway.

Celtic's best chance of the night came right at the death when Stafford's Keeper was forced into a brilliant save to deny a Sykes blockbuster.

Take nothing away from Celtic's performance though. Reedy is shaping this team into a force to be reckoned with and next year could be our year.