Instead, by delving into his, the Celtic manager gave free rein to riches that lashed a limp Lanarkshire side with a four-goal burst in a truly breathtaking first-half display. Only for the home team to be transformed after the interval and, incredibly, have Celtic wobbling when two goals inside three minutes reduced the deficit to 4-2 with fully 34 minutes remaining.

But it remained a day to savour for Celtic, the perfect fillip following their Old Firm defeat and a confidence-booster ahead of them hosting Aalborg in their Champions League opener on Wednesday. The following evening, Motherwell face Nancy in France. Their hope will be that they are not asked to handle the fluidity and invention that made Celtic unstoppable for 40 minutes.

Yet, in the heat of a 15-minute mini-revival from Mark McGhee's men, at a stretch it was possible to wonder whether the teams hadn't just changed ends at the interval but also changed kits. Celtic, otherwise, left Motherwell looking so un-Motherwell. You expect the Fir Park team to be in the faces of teams in their own backyard. For the opening period yesterday, they were left looking at the backs of Celtic players' heads as they were sliced apart by passing moves of pace and precision orchestrated by Shaun Maloney, Georgios Samaras and, in his first start, Marc Crosas.

The home team couldn't handle them because they sat off and admired, an approach they knocked on the head following the break in favour of clattering the legs of a Celtic team who stopped playing in so abrupt a fashion it was as if the muse had simply left them.

In truth, the turnaround was a combination of Motherwell no longer leaving their visitors room to shuttle the ball around with alacrity and Celtic, in turn, being unable to sustain a level that had bordered on the majestic, never more so than five minutes from half-time when they made it 4-0 with a sleek, seven-man move. It culminated in Lee Naylor sprinting over the halfway line and picking out Scott McDonald, the Australian, who with one touch back-heeled into the path of Samaras. The striker completed a plunder to have purists drooling by striding on and burying an effort past Graeme Smith with utter conviction.

Strachan is often accused of being inflexible in team selection, leading to an inflexibility in his team's style of play. Yesterday, no such charge could be levelled. It would have been inconceivable a month ago to believe that Celtic could be driven to creative heights rarely seen in Strachan's three-year tenure without Aiden McGeady and Shunsuke Nakamura at the heart of such form but both men started on the bench. Instead, Scott Brown and Maloney were handed the wide roles and Crosas took over in central midfeld from the injured Paul Hartley. Mark Wilson switched to his favoured right-back berth as Lee Naylor reappeared on the opposite flank, and that meant no place in the squad for Andreas Hinkel.

The effects were instant, with Maloney turning the ball in from point-blank range at the back post after the Motherwell defence failed to clear a tame ball in from the right by Brown five minutes in. Three minutes later Samaras drove through the middle of the home backline, selling Mark Reynolds with a shimmy before lashing a low effort beyond the Motherwell keeper. There then followed a period of total football from Celtic that was glorious to watch, before McDonald made it 3-0 in 24 minutes when he spun Reynolds and produced a sweet lob that beat Smith by way of his finger tips. Maloney shimmered the crossbar with a free-kick before the fourth as Celtic threatened to run riot.

That they ended the confrontation with only a two-goal winning margin spoke of commendable face-saving in the second half from Motherwell. Just for a brief spell it threatened to be even more, but it began in the 55th minute when David Clarkson lobbed a ball into the box that Keith Lasley outjumped Gary Caldwell to and flicked into the path of John Sutton, who first-timed a thunderous drive in from 14 yards. Two minutes later Stephen McGarry played Clarkson in to drill the ball beyond Artur Boruc and a contest was suddenly only a Motherwell goal away. It didn't arrive, and a gripping afternoon's entertainment could offer no more. By then, the Scottish champions had served up more flowing football than in the rest of 2008 put together.


Magnificent to see team go with the flow says happy Strachan

CELTIC'S football was verging on the poetic for the full opening period of their 4-2 win over Motherwell yesterday but it only required the prosaic from Gordon Strachan to do it full justice. "That was as good as we've played in a long time," the Celtic manager acknowledged. "We had that flow we've tried to get and there was no stuttering. Everyone knew when the ball was going to be played and everyone was moving at the right time. The football was absolutely magnificent."

Strachan admitted he took "a wee gamble" in extensively reshaping his side, with four personnel changes and seven positional changes from the team that lost 4-2 to Rangers in their last outing. He says he did so because, with the upcoming heavy schedule that includes Wednesday night's Champions League hosting of Aalborg, he didn't want to face the possibility of throwing fringe players in "when they'd spent the last six games on the bench".

Marc Crosas was given a first start, and Scott McDonald and Lee Naylor returned to the side following injury, with Shaun Maloney and Scott Brown deployed in the wide roles normally the preserve of Shunsuke Nakamura and Aiden McGeady, both on the bench at Fir Park. Now Strachan must decide whether to keep the changes.

Strachan still found time for one whinge yesterday, praising his side's "discipline" for not complaining over the lead-up to Motherwell's first goal. It seems he was unhappy with Keith Lasley's challenge on Gary Caldwell that allowed the midfielder to knock the ball down for John Sutton to score. "If it had been my old days at Aberdeen we would have chased the referee up to the halfway line," he said. "It just shows my players have respect for the referee (Craig Thomson]."

Motherwell manager Mark McGhee said: "What went wrong for us was that Celtic were so good. They were fast, powerful, inventive and outclassed us in every department. The way they played in that first half today, they would have done to most SPL teams what they did to us. In the second half we at least didn't go into our shells, started to play for one another and salvaged a bit of pride."

He would not accept that his team's 4-3-3 set-up left them too open and maintained he will not consider reconfiguring his formation for the UEFA Cup tie against Nancy on Thursday.


MAN OF THE MATCH
It can be no mere coincidence that Celtic suddenly look as if they have craft to spare going forward since Shaun Maloney's return. His interchanges with Georgios Samaras and Marc Crosas were central to the team finding a rhythm to their passing and movement.

TALKING POINT
Celtic have now claimed four-goal hauls in five games at Fir Park since 2002.

QUICK FACT
Gordon Strachan now has tough decisions to make regarding his team for the Champions League. With five goals in three games Georgios Samaras is sure to start up front, but Strachan must decide whether to continue with Marc Crosas, and how he fits in Shaun Maloney, Shunsuke Nakamura and Aiden McGeady.