Let's give Dundee United credit - there’s some spirit and desire still stirring in the old club. Their ex-chairman allegedly knows how to throw a hook, but United didn’t come to Parkhead to play the role of a punchbag. You knew the Tayside team had survived with their reputation intact by a remarkable chorus which greeted the final whistle. A knot of United fans perched in a corner bellowed their hymn of praise. Up in the stand, wise old Alex Smith - old at least in afflictions if not for his 59 years - looked out on a team who went two goals down, but somehow never quite surrendered to Celtic. United, as usual, had players from every continent, but Smith had somehow imbued them with an old-fashioned Scottish commitment. In Jason de Vos the visitors yet again had a remarkably impressive centre-back.

In Craig Easton, no world beater, they also had a player willing to shoulder his responsibilities. The miracle of this, though, would have been United actually equalising when Steven Thompson had a chance in the 70th minute. This young striker, Smith argues, has never been the same since Billy Dodds left Tannadice, but the ball certainly sat up nicely for him with Celtic’s entire defence loitering elsewhere. Thompson’s shot was firm and low, but it skidded wide of a post. In the end, the visitors had to settle for gallant failure. "I can say, though, that this was the first time since I came to the club that we’ve come away from a game feeling pride and promise for Dundee United’s future," said Smith afterwards. "I thought we were organised, we had a willingness to help each other, and we actually looked like a team capable of collecting points. For just about the entire game I managed to remain in my seat in the stand. That meant I wasn’t too worried about what I was watching." Celtic, as their manager hinted later, were industrious without looking florid. In Henrik Larsson, scorer of their opening goal, whom Martin O’Neill later described as "essential to us playing well", they nonetheless still have a player not fully his old self.

Yet Larsson must be in possession of other mystical qualities. No matter how depreciated he seems, he still has a telling influence on matches. Apart from all this, there still seemed to be no luck for Jim McLean. United, in effort, shape and discipline, played decently here in their first visit to Parkhead in 30 years when McLean has not been present. This smacked dangerously of Ivan Golac syndrome - when United made five Scottish Cup final appearances without pulling off a triumph, only for McLean to retire. Golac then appeared, and the team went on to win in 1994. Are United strangely lifted by the disappearance of the old tyrant? The wretched week for the Tannadice club wasn’t helped by Alex Mathie’s outburst about his former captain. Of De Vos, Mathie had referred to a clipe and a gossip in the dressing-room, a shocking, horrifying claim surely never heard of before in human history. If Mathie’s total ability had been what De Vos offers United from one of his big toes, this team’s plight might be quite different. Anyone watching the visitors’ captain here acknowledged again what a rock he is in their defence. Celtic came in torrents, either through the middle or down their left flank, but De Vos and his defensive partners, John Licina, the Frenchman, and David Partridge, a Welshman, provided rugged resistance.

Don’t, by the way, watch this United team if you are disorientated by nationality. As well as these two, they had Hondurans, an Argentine, a Greek, a Cameroonian and even some Scots in their team. Jim McLean was many things, but a xenophobe he was not. Compared to recent performances, Celtic, frankly, had a beavering quality about them. Too often, especially in the first half, the telling pass from midfield went undelivered as the home team settled on a lot of bland passing. Paul Lambert, possessing unarguable abilities, sometimes carries this contagion, and yesterday it spread to players such as Stillian Petrov. Lambert, of course, has a specific job to do, but at times too much of this is infuriating. On more than one occasion O’Neill and John Robertson threw their arms in the air as Petrov went square instead of releasing Chris Sutton.

United could be grateful for the continuing and remarkable form of Alan Combe. It almost beggars belief that this is the youngster who glaringly lacked confidence with St Mirren. Combe excelled, throwing himself at Petta in the first half and Henrik Larsson in the second, giving the illusion of his team still being alive. But the goalkeeper still knew nothing of Celtic’s opener after 34 minutes. Petrov worked a short corner before whipping over the ball, which Larsson stooped low to head with venom inside the right post. A forest of United players had infested the box, but Larsson’s ability to exploit a chink of space remains undiminished. In the 61st minute, when Alan Thompson rifled home Celtic’s second from 20 yards, perhaps Combe could have got his body behind the ball, though its pace must have been unnerving.

United’s goal, the joke went, couldn’t even be struck by one of their own. But it was still a marvellous-looking blunder by Lambert. Easton’s cross appeared to come to no-one but two Celtic defenders before Lambert arrived to slice the ball past Jonathan Gould. Lambert’s nose runs with blood these days if he ever threatens the opposition goal - this was one way round the problem.

DUNDEE UTD: Combe, McQuillan, De Vos, Partridge, Buchan, Licina, Easton, Venetis (Leoni 71), Aljofree, Fuentes (Atangana 61), Thompson (Ramirez 86). Subs not used: Onstad, Worrell.