Dylan McGeough scored his first Celtic goal to help John Kennedy’s side to a 3-1 win over St Johnstone today.
After a goal-less first half the second period opened up after John Herron broke the deadlock with spectacular strikes from McGeough and Callum McGregor settling the issue either side of a penalty for the visitors.
With Stuart Findlay suspended after being red carded against Rangers in the Glasgow Cup Jackson Irvine moved back into defence alongside Marcus Fraser with Filip Twardzik starting in midfield.
St Johnstone were well organised and matched Celtic in most areas of the park without unduly threatening Robbie Thomson.
Despite the constant rainfall the pitch at Lennoxtown stood up well to the elements with both teams passing the ball through the midfield.
The first chance of the game fell to Irvine in the seventh minute when he shot narrowly wide after breaking from defence with Herron forcing a close range save from the visitors keeper shortly afterwards.
St Johnstone settled into the game without overly troubling the Celtic defence with a header from Herron striking the crossbar in the 32nd minute.
Five minutes into the second half Celtic made the breakthrough with Herron scoring his fourth goal of the season.
A crossfield pass from Filip Twardzik was controlled by the midfielder whose shot across the keeper struck the woodwork and appeared to cross the line before the keeper grabbed the rebound.
The linesman seemed unsure of whether it was a goal or not but the referee was well placed in the penalty area to award the goal. One of the St Johnstone players was booked for protesting the decision with coach Alex Clelland spoken to, tellingly the St Johnstone goalkeeper wasn’t amongst those protesting loudest.
Celtic had to wait until the 73rd minute to increase their lead but McGeough’s solo strike was well worth the delay. Picking up the ball just inside his own half he evaded a few lunging challenges before side stepping the final defender and driving a low left footed shot across the keeper into the net.
There wasn’t much time to enjoy that goal with St Johnstone scoring from a softly awarded penalty just three minutes later.
Twardzik and substitute Tony Watt came close to restoring Celtic’s two goal lead before McGregor found the net with a 20 yarder in the final minute.
Hearts remain a point behind Celtic after winning 4-2 at Kilmarnock. Next Saturday Celtic face Rangers at Murray Park with the Ibrox side drawing 1-1 today with Motherwell leaving them with four points from four games.
CELTIC; Thomson, Miller, Irvine, Fraser, Chalmers; Herron ( Atajic 77), F Twardzik, Kidd, McGregor; McGeogh, Bogle (Watt 77)
SUBS: Daniels, Gormley, Williamson, Fisher
THIS SEASON’S SPL SCORERS: Watt 4, F Twardzik 3, Herron 3, Williamson 2, George 1, Atajic 1, Gormley 1, McGeough 1, McGregor1, OG 1
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