Date	Saturday, 29 March 2014
Competition	Scottish Premiership
Fixture/Score	Celtic 1:1 Ross County
Venue	Celtic Park
Attendance	49,270
Referee	John Beaton
Comments	Match Report Report by Alasdair Lamont for the BBC. Celtic 1 Ross County 1 Celtic celebrated a third successive league title, having been unable to deliver the type of result that has secured the Scottish Premiership. Ross County must take credit for that, putting on a confident, bullish performance to earn a point. Melvin de Leeuw fired them into an early lead, with a cool low finish. Kris Commons knocked in the equaliser but despite spending most of the second half in the County half, Celtic were unable to find a winner. It wasn't a bad performance by the champions, though it perhaps lacked the spark that might have been evident had there been more riding on the outcome. Their bright start to the match yielded nothing in the way of goals and Ross County showed a considerably more clinical edge by burying their first opportunity of the afternoon. Graham Carey took advantage of slack play by Celtic inside their own half and the former Celtic player timed his pass to De Leeuw perfectly, allowing the striker to drill a shot low past Fraser Forster. At this stage County did look like a side for whom the result mattered more, belying their status as a team fighting to avoid a relegation play-off. But Celtic's front three of Leigh Griffiths, Anthony Stokes and Commons always looked capable of creating problems for the visitors' backline and so it was with the equaliser. Griffiths was allowed time to line up a long-range shot and when it was spilled by Mark Brown, Commons - as he has been so often this season - was on hand to turn the rebound into the net. And Griffiths might have given Celtic the lead before the interval, but for a timely challenge from Erik Cikos to divert the striker's shot over the bar. Liam Henderson scored his first Celtic goal in the victory over Partick Thistle on Wednesday and almost doubled that tally at the outset of the second half. Stefan Johansen had an age to pick him out at the back post but Henderson's header from a tight angle bounced back off the upright. Celtic were utterly dominant possession-wise, but County were defending stoutly and offering the odd counter-attack to ensure the home fans' celebrations were kept on hold. Indeed Carey almost dampened those celebrations further with a typically ambitious and venomous effort from 30 yards. With Forster flying to his right, the keeper would have been relieved to see the ball ricochet off the post. Derek Adams believes his Ross County could have claimed maximum points in their draw with league champions Celtic. Melvin de Leeuw fired them into an early lead before Kris Commons levelled for the Premiership winners. "We created enough chances to win the game today," Adams told BBC Scotland. "We played really well - especially in the first half and then hitting the woodwork in the second; disappointed to come away with just a point." With County having beaten Celtic in the past, Adams' side arrived in Glasgow in confident mood. "They're obviously worthy champions this year but over the years we've performed really well against Celtic - won last year against them, and today I thought that we had enough chances to win the match," he said. "If we're going to finish in seventh position then it's a very good point for us. We've played really well, we've done so since January; we're one of the form teams and the confidence is high. "You saw that today with the way we passed the ball, the way we played we created openings and, you know, we played the diamond formation the same as Celtic, so we were very positive today." And Adams said he was not entertaining thoughts of a relegation play-off battle for his County side. "Our intentions are to finish in seventh place this season, and by the performances we've had then I'm sure the squad will do that," he added.
Ross County
Manager	Derek Adams
Starting 11	1: Mark Brown, 2: Erik Cikos, 5: Scott Boyd 1, 7: Filip Kiss, 8: Richard Brittain, 11: Melvin De Leeuw 1, 12: Michael Tidser, 23: Graham Carey, 26: Evangelos Oikonomou 1, 27: Yoann Arquin, 28: Yann Songo'o
Bench	42: Sean McCarthy, 3: Benjamin Gordon, 10: Rocco Quinn, 15: Gary Glen, 21: Brian McLean, 22: Steven Saunders, 25: Jordan Slew
Celtic
Manager	Neil Lennon
Starting 11	Fraser Forster, Efe Ambrose, Emilio Izaguirie, Scott Brown, Eoghan O'Connell, Virgil van Dijk, Liam Henderson, Stefan Johansen 1, Leigh Griffiths, Kris Commons 1, Anthony Stokes
Bench	Georgios Samaras, Amido Balde, Teemu Pukki, Lukasz Zaluska, John Herron, Beram Kayal, Marcus Fraser