24-07-05: Celtic (a) 0-0 (HT 0-0) Crowd (15,000)

Programme

Celtic chose to rest John Hartson, Chris Sutton, Stilian Petrov and Neil Lennon. But the home fans got their first glimpse of new signing Paul Telfer, and on-loan Polish goalkeeper Artur Boruc also impressed and Michael Gardyne and Paul Lawson also made their Celtic debuts. Leeds boss Kevin Blackwell used almost his entire squad of twenty-one players during the game, with only Shaun Derry and Ian Bennett completing the full ninety minutes and Seth Johnson the only player not to get a run. But it was Celtic that almost took the lead early on when Stephen McManus saw his volley deflected on to the post by Leeds captain Gary Kelly. Then Stanislav Varga headed against the bar for the home side while David Healy's long-range shot was Leeds' best effort. For Celtic Alan Thompson replaced Bobo Balde at half-time, after sixty-two minutes Maciej Zurawski came on for Craig Beattie and nine minutes later Tony McParland took over from Aiden McGeady leaving goalkeeper David Marshall, Jeremie Aliadiere, Michael McGlinchey, Rocco Quinn and Darren O'Dea unused on the bench. For Leeds, they waited until the sixty-eighth minute before making their first double substitution as Frazer Richardson replaced Gary Kelly at Right Back and Matthew Kilgallon replaced Sean Gregan in Central Defence, but four minutes later Michael Ricketts came on for Robbie Blake one of the strikers' roles. The seventy-eighth minute saw a triple change with Stephen Crainey replacing Dan Harding at Left Back, Matthew Spring coming on for Eirik Bakke in midfield and Gylfi Einarsson replacing David Healy as a striker. Six minutes later there was another double substitution as Paul Butler made way for Clarke Carlisle in Central Defence and Danny Pugh replaced Eddie Lewis on the left flank, before Simon Walton became the final substitution when he replaced Jermaine Wright with four minutes left on the clock. It was a competent performance by Leeds who looked defensively sound with Butler and Gregan reassuringly safe and the left flank of Dan Harding and Eddie Lewis impressing. Eirik Bakke had another outstanding game as he built up his fitness levels after his long lay-off and he and Shaun Derry seemed to have cemented their places in midfield. The 1,500 travelling Leeds fans were extremely vocal but had little to get excited about.