Celtic 1-1 Motherwell: Hoops miss penalty as Jon Obika earns stubborn Motherwell a point at Parkhead

Report as Celtic draw 1-1 with Motherwell at Parkhead; David Turnbull scored from the spot after Luis Palma missed an earlier penalty; Jon Obika scored a late equaliser for the Steelmen

Alison Conroy

Digital Sports Journalist @AlisonGConroy

Saturday 25 November 2023 21:07, UK

Jon Obika's late goal earned Motherwell a point against Celtic, who both missed and scored a penalty.

His equaliser came just four minutes after David Turnbull's penalty looked like it would consign his former club to another defeat.

But the visitors, who had not won in nine games, piled on some late pressure and took advantage as Obika headed home Blair Spittal's corner.

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It was a frustrating afternoon for Celtic, who saw Luis Palma's penalty saved by Liam Kelly and Matt O'Riley's late header deflected past the post.

Brendan Rodgers' side are now nine points ahead of Rangers, who have two games in hand, while Motherwell are eighth.

Celtic frustrated by Motherwell

Motherwell survived 10 minutes of stoppage time to get their second draw in succession at Parkhead and only a third point in their last 10 matches.

Stuart Kettlewell's side also came within seconds of getting a point against Celtic at Fir Park during that run, only for O'Riley to net moments after Spittal had equalised.

Kelly made two good stops early on, from O'Riley's first-time strike and a header from team-mate Stephen O'Donnell as he defended Palma's inswinging corner.

The visitors generally protected Kelly for the majority of the first period, though, and grew in confidence towards the end of the half.

O'Donnell had an effort cleared from the goalmouth by Cameron Carter-Vickers, with Joe Hart stranded after a ball over the top, before Dan Casey fired over from the loose ball.

The Celtic goalkeeper then produced a diving parry from Harry Paton's well-struck effort from 20 yards.

Rodgers decided a half-time change was needed and brought on striker Hyeon-gyu Oh for midfielder Odin Thiago Holm, although Kyogo Furuhashi dropped deeper as a result.

After a scrappy start to the second half, Furuhashi sparked the move that led to Celtic's first penalty in the 66th minute when he won the ball on the halfway line and drove forward before releasing Palma.

The winger's low delivery was nearly turned into his own net by Bevis Mugabi,only for Kelly to save, and the defender's sliding challenge brought down Oh as the South Korean prepared to convert the rebound.

Mugabi escaped with a yellow card from Steven McLean after making a genuine attempt to play the ball and Motherwell survived the spot-kick as Kelly dived to his right to stop Palma's effort after the Honduran had halted his run-up.

Palma had scored from the spot against Aberdeen but became the third Celtic player to miss a penalty this season following Reo Hatate and Turnbull.

Celtic brought on Turnbull and Mikey Johnston in the immediate aftermath of the miss.

It was one-way traffic now and Johnston set up a glorious chance for Hyun-jun Yang as the South Korean ran into the middle to meet the winger's cross. However, he sent his free header wide of a post.

Liam Scales soon came close with a more difficult header as his effort drifted wide of the far post from Turnbull's corner, but the danger was not over for Motherwell as replays showed Butcher had held back Johnston as he followed in the header.

McLean pointed to the spot after taking a look at the incident on the monitor.

With Palma off, Turnbull stepped up and dispatched the ball right into the bottom corner for his seventh goal of the season.

Kettlewell immediately brought on two strikers to join fellow substitute Obika up front and the extra bodies paid dividends as they won a corner which sparked the equaliser from their only second-half effort at goal.

Rodgers ready to move on quickly

Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers spoke to Sky Sports News at full time:

"Disappointing. I think when you have over 80 percent of the ball and you're really dominating the game I felt we probably needed to create a bit more than what we did.

"We got two penalties and those decisive moments in the game you've got to win those and sadly for us we missed a penalty and conceded from a corner.

"The players gave everything, the attitude and commitment was there but we probably just lacked that bit of quality in the final third.

"You've got to give Motherwell credit. They worked very hard, were organised and made it really difficult for us.

"It's always disappointing when you drop points in the league but you've no time to dwell on it. We'll prepare and plan now [for Lazio], the players will recover and it'll be an exciting game for us now on Tuesday."

Kettlewell not 'doing cartwheels'

Motherwell manager Stuart Kettlewell:

"It's a point gained. I don't want to be in a position where I'm doing cartwheels and jumping through hoops at this point.

"I think what it does is it gives us a platform to build on.

"We've been hammered of late - and rightly so - for not winning games, and we're on a poor run of form, but I think what today showed was we're a together team.

"We understood what it was going to take to try and get something out of the game today.

"I understand a lot of people would like to see us try to gain more possession of the ball and potentially create more chances, but I think the end result today shows we got that right."