With just three minutes on the clock McDonald passed up a gilt-edged
chance to open the scoring.
The Australian beat Derek Lilley to Darren O'Dea's long ball, cut
across the defender into the box, but blasted his shot past the post.
Shunsuke Nakamura has tormented Kilmarnock during his four seasons in
Scotland, scoring eight goals against the Ayrshire club.
And the Japanese almost added to that tally with a drive from the
edge of the box that flew inches past the post.
As Kilmarnock struggled to make headway towards the Celtic goal the
best they could muster was a wayward Jamie Hamill free-kick, and a
skewed cross that almost caught out goalkeeper Artur Boruc.
But
with 27 minutes on the clock McDonald made up for his earlier miss as he
curled the ball beyond Combe and inside the far post.
The striker's finish was inch-perfect, but Killie boss Jim Jefferies
will be unhappy that McDonald was completely unmarked as he received
Crosas' pass in the penalty area.
Within minutes Combe came to his team's rescue twice as Celtic
exploited gaping holes in the right side of Killie's defence.
First the keeper blocked Scott Brown's close-range effort, then he
deflected Aiden McGeady's low shot on to the crossbar.
Celtic were made to rue their wastefulness in front of goal on 36
minutes when Danny Invincible side-footed past Boruc, with
the visitors failing to deal with Craig Bryson's corner.
Five minutes after the restart Celtic's defence were almost punished
a second time for failing to attack a high ball.
David Fernandez should perhaps have done better than lob over the bar
with Boruc advancing, but the early chance seemed to lift the home side.
Kilmarnock began to find more space in attack and could have taken
the lead on two further occasions before the hour mark through Kevin
Kyle and Connor Sammon, who badly miscued a free header from 12 yards
out.
At the other end Combe produced another fantastic save to deny Gary
Caldwell's bullet header at point-blank range.
But with nine minutes remaining McDonald showed wonderful skill to
turn Lilley on the edge of the box before toe-poking the ball in from 12
yards to give Celtic a vital victory.
Sandy's Match Pic's are
HERE
36
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