Last season’s UEFA Cup finalists still looked sick from their painful late mid-week collapse to Bayern Munich in the Olympic Stadium after a terrible goalless first-half here this afternoon.

But despite being denied a penalty by referee Iain Brines and booked for going down under the challenge of Gordon Marshall, the Swede reacted in his own inevitable way by celebrating his 32nd birthday with a goal before setting up the second for Chris Sutton.

It was a fitting way for the Englishman to mark his first game of the season after serving a five-match domestic suspension.

Shaun Maloney also fired a reminder to manager Martin O’Neill with a superb final goal, while Magnus Hedman made amends for his midweek howler to deny Stephen Pearson what would have been an equaliser.

But despite the warm reception from the home fans which greeted his name before kick-off, the goalkeeper looked nervous after his part in Roy Makaay’s winner.

Hedman unconvincingly flapped at Derek Adams’ corner, but fortunately Bobo Balde reacted first to clear the ball out of the danger area.

Larsson also looked out of soughts in the first-half and squandered a glorious opportunity on 11 minutes.

Stilian Petrov did well under pressure from Pearson and back-heeled the ball to Alan Thompson on the overlap.

The Englishman looked up and picked out the Swede in the centre and nobody would have bet against him scoring, but Larsson surprisingly headed over the top from just seven yards.

The home side continued to look hesitant in defence and Adams’ corner seemed to touch a Celtic player before clipping the post and going behind.

The Motherwell midfielder then picked out Steven Hammell, and the full-back whistled a powerful effort just past the upright from 22 yards.

But Celtic came to life in the 25th minute and Thompson was desperately close to getting on the end of a superb one-two with Larsson.

Moments later the Swede tried to conjure up some magic with a right-foot curler, but Gordon Marshall threw himself down to his left to push the ball away.

There was controversy in the 36th minute when Brines rejected the home side’s claims for a penalty.

Martyn Corrigan’s mistake allowed Larsson to nip in, and as he tried to round the onrushing Marshall, he went crashing down in the area.

Most people in the stadium expected the referee to point to the spot, but instead he showed the Swede a yellow card for diving theatrically.

That added to the frustration of the home fans and moments later they were shouting for a harsher punishment than the yellow card Hammell received for bringing down Momo Sylla.

John Hartson then headed Thompson’s corner past the upright and Thompson fired a free-kick well wide before the half-time whistle brought jeers from the home crowd.

That certainly hit home as within just two minutes of the restart, Celtic took the lead through Larsson.

There was no uncertainty this time as he got away from his marker inside the box to head Thompson’s free-kick well clear of Marshall and into the top corner.

But Celtic would have lost their second lead in the space of three days had it not been for the heroics of Hedman in the 59th minute.

The Swede made amends for his well-documented mistake by blocking Pearson’s goalbound shot after Steven Craig had threaded him through.

O’Neill decided to bring Maloney on for Hartson on the hour, but Stephen Craigan should have done better with another great opportunity moments later.

Hammell’s corner came through a crowded goalmouth and fell right to him at the far post, but somehow he managed to completely miss the ball.

But Motherwell paid the price for missing those chances in the 65th minute, with Larsson this time turning provider.

The striker spotted the run of Sutton and played a perfect ball into his path for him to steer the ball past Marshall.

Maloney gave O’Neill a reminder in the 70th minute when he curled a brilliant right-foot free-kick over the wall and squeezed it between Marshall and his post.

That gave the Celtic boss the opportunity to hand Michael Gray his debut as he and Liam Miller came on for Neil Lennon and Petrov two minutes later.

There was still time for Sylla’s deflected shot to come back off the post and Marshall to save the rebound from Sutton late on.

But that would have been far too harsh on the visitors, who had just witnessed Celtic finally recover from the their opening Champions League defeat.