Celtic 1 Partick Thistle 0: match report As Stokes and Samaras were getting stripped, Lyle Taylor left the field on his debut for Partick Thistle after the agreement of a loan deal with Sheffield United. The Englishman's credentials were advertised when he was with Falkirk last season and scored 29 goals - almost twice as many as the 15 amassed by the entire Thistle side in the 18 games which preceded this encounter. Pukki came close to vindicating his start within only 38 seconds when he got a looping header on target to force Scott Fox into a tip over his crossbar. That was as close as the Finnish international striker would come in his 66 minutes on the field, barring a second-half shot which was also clocked by Fox at the expense of a corner kick. Taylor, by contrast, periodically caused Celtic concern throughout the first half and he signalled his appetite for the contest early when he peeled off Efe Ambrose and then turned the defender to deliver a cutback which did not find a colleague. As the lone striker in a 4-5-1 formation, Taylor could have expected to have to feed off scraps, so it was presumably a surprise for him to discover that he would be afforded considerable latitude by the Celtic central defenders, especially when he was the target for crosses from Aaron Taylor-Sinclair. The Thistle left-back - who has been the subject of speculation connecting him with Celtic - first picked out Taylor with a well flighted delivery that was glanced by the forward narrowly past Fraser Forster's far post. Next time the pair combined, the goalkeeper had to hurl himself to touch the effort around his post and, to emphasise the Jags" growing confidence, between times Forster had also to make a lunging interception to divert a driven effort by Stuart Bannigan. The fixture had the status of a Glasgow derby but was so far removed from the convulsive temper of an Old Firm collision that the Thistle fans were able to taunt their Hoops counterparts for their passivity without any response. To add to the oddity of the occasion, the visiting support spent the closing minutes applauding their team's ability to move upfield while retaining possession with short, sharp passing movements. In the event, though, Celtic staggered across the line, prompting Lennon to say: "There were poor second halfs in Perth and Inverness and today there was a flatness. We need this break [when Celtic travel to Turkey] because we are heavy legged and mentally tired. There is no question that the squad needs freshening with an injection of new blood. Match details Celtic (4-3-3): Forster; Matthews, Ambrose, Van Dijk, Izaguirre; Brown, Mulgrew, Ledley (Samaras 66); Forrest, Pukki (Stokes 66), Commons (Biton 90). Subs Zaluska (g), Balde, Boerrigter, Fisher. Booked Brown. Partick Thistle (4-5-1): Fox; O'Donnell, Muirhead (Wilson 81), Balatoni, Taylor-Sinclair; Craigen, Piccolo, Elliott, Bannigan, Higginbotham (Lawless 72);Taylor (Doolan 64). Subs Gallacher (g), Forbes, Baird, Kerr. Booked Muirhead. Referee K Clancy