It wasn’t a 30 yarder that almost took the net away or an eye catching free kick but for Michael O’Hallaran Celtic’s third goal at St Mirren on Wednesday night was just as pleasing.
Trailing by two goals to one the home side were chasing everything to get an equaliser when the ball was played out wide to Jack Aitchison just inside the Saints half.
“It was the counter that created the goal,” O’Halloran recalled. “It was great endeavour from Jack, winning a 50-50 ball then racing forward with defenders closing in. It was the cut back and that created the chance.
“When it came in to him I was thinking ‘hit it first time, hit it first time’ but Keiran (Campbell) decided to take it round three defenders then put it away as calm as you like.
“It’s very pleasing when you see a goal like that being scored. It combined a lot of things that we work on in training and the two boys involved displayed a lot of ability, it was very pleasing.”
St Mirren had started the match strongly and deservedly took the lead after ten minutes with a well worked goal finished off by a crisp shot from 20 yards out.
It took Celtic until the half hour mark to impose themselves on the game but by the interval goals from Lewis Bell and Michael Johnston put O’Halloran’s side in front.
“St Mirren got an early goal and that seemed to put us on the back foot,” the Celtic coach admitted. “It was disappointing to lose a goal because we are always looking for a clean sheet.
The second goal from Michael Johnstone was magnificent and after that we dominated although St Mirren hung in.
“The intensity of our play was really good, even in the final minutes we were up the pitch, breaking forward and looked like we could have played all night.”
CELTIC: McAdams; Bowers, Welsh, Potter, Deas: Campbell, Bell, McLaughlin (McInroy), Johnston (Watson); Aitchison (Antonazzi), Diver
League scorers so far (12 matches): Johnston 12, Aitchison 8, McLaughlin 4, Bell 3, Watson 2, McAllister 2, Antonazzi 1, Payne 1, Campbell 2, McInroy, Thorburn, Diver.
Glasgow Cup (4 matches): Johnston 5, Aitchison 5, Diver 1, Antonazzi 1, Campbell 1.