Celtic Maintain Title Defence with Narrow Win Over St Johnstone
Mika Baur’s first Celtic goal was hardly a classic, but it kept a relentless title defence rolling.
On a tense afternoon at McDiarmid Park, Celtic ground out a 1-0 win over a stubborn St Johnstone side to stretch their perfect start in the Scottish Premiership to six games and move five points clear of Rangers at the top.
With a Europa League tie looming and an Old Firm double – cup and league – on the horizon, Martin O’Neill shuffled his pack. Five changes, including a first league start back from injury for Kasper Hogh and a debut in goal for on-loan keeper Sam Johnstone, hinted at rotation. The performance that followed screamed of a team trying to do things the hard way.
Johnstone’s big moment, Celtic’s early waste
Celtic began on the front foot. Within five minutes, Haissem Hassan had already forced a strong save from the St Johnstone goalkeeper, who turned his effort past the post as the champions pressed for an early breakthrough.
But the best chance of the first half belonged to the hosts.
On 19 minutes, Joel Cotterill – handed his first St Johnstone start – ghosted onto a low cross from Alic and looked certain to score. Johnstone, though, flung up a strong hand to palm the ball over the bar. It was a huge save, the kind that justifies a manager’s selection in an instant.
Celtic, for all their possession, never settled into any real fluency. Callum McGregor saw a shot deflected wide by Campbell, with Steward punching the resulting corner clear. At the other end, the warning signs flashed. Diabate’s effort was hooked off the line by Donovan, then just before the break the forward headed past the post from a teasing cross by Tounekti.
St Johnstone, unbeaten at McDiarmid Park this season, were not playing the role of respectful newcomers. They were asking questions. Serious ones.
Baur breaks through
The pattern barely changed after the interval. Within two minutes of the restart, McAlear shrugged off McGregor and set up Steven, only for his finish to go straight at Johnstone. Another let-off.
Then the pressure told.
On 52 minutes, Hassan finally found the telling ball. Darting into space, the Egypt international drilled a low cross across the face of goal. Baur arrived on cue, six yards out, to tap in his first Celtic goal. He couldn’t miss. He didn’t.
The goal should have settled Celtic. It didn’t.
O’Neill’s side continued to carve out opportunities but repeatedly failed to kill the game. The manager’s frustration spilled out afterwards as he bemoaned how his players had made “goalscoring, which is very difficult, almost impossible” with their wastefulness in front of goal.
Controversy on the byline
The biggest flashpoint came midway through the second half.
Hogh rose at the back post and headed the ball back across goal for Hassan, who thumped it into the net. Celtic celebrated what they thought was the winger’s first goal for the club. The assistant’s flag cut them short.
The ball, he ruled, had drifted out of play before Hogh nodded it back. No goal.
Replays were inconclusive. From one angle, the ball seemed to hang on the line; from another, it looked gone. Sky Sports pundit James McFadden summed up the VAR dilemma: without definitive proof, the on-field call stands.
“We can say we think the ball stays in all we like. It doesn’t matter,” he said. “There’s no way that you can say the assistant is wrong… there is not a chance that would have been overturned.”
Celtic had to swallow it and go again.
Hassan almost found his reward soon after, curling a shot towards the far corner only for Steward to push it wide. James Forrest then twisted and turned on the edge of the box and forced another sharp stop from the Saints keeper.
The second goal refused to come.
St Johnstone push, Celtic cling on
St Johnstone sensed that hesitation and went after it. Alic drilled a shot inches past the post with 10 minutes to play, a reminder that Celtic’s lead was as fragile as it felt.
The champions responded with more pressure. Nygren slipped Hogh in, only for Steward to turn his effort behind. Moments later, Nygren met a Forrest cross but directed his header straight into the goalkeeper’s arms.
For all Celtic’s chances, St Johnstone never disappeared. That was exactly how O’Neill saw it.
“I thought St Johnstone were never out of the game,” he admitted. “Even if we got the second goal, I never felt St Johnstone were out of it.”
His opposite number, Simo Valakari, cut a figure of pride laced with regret. His side had gone toe-to-toe with the champions, created enough to score, and left with nothing.
“We definitely had our moments,” he said. “The question, can we survive these moments? And when we get our own chance, can we take it? And we did not take it today.”
They had the platform. They lacked the finish.
Imperfect, but relentless
The final whistle brought relief more than celebration for Celtic. This was win number 13 in a row in all competitions, stretching back to the tail end of last season, yet it felt anything but routine.
O’Neill’s assessment was blunt. His team, he felt, overplayed in front of goal, passed when they should have finished, and turned a game that could have been comfortable into a scrap.
Still, the league table is unforgiving only in numbers, not aesthetics. Six games, six wins, five points clear. Rangers, who Celtic face in their next Premiership outing a week on Sunday, are already chasing.
Celtic are far from their fluent best. But they keep winning. With Europe calling and an Old Firm storm on the horizon, how long can they live on this edge?
