Stuart Armstrong was Celtic’s matchwinner at Kilmarnock tonight as Brendan Rodgers side went 14 points clear at the top of the Premier League.
Despite being described as the Blonde Cafu by Brendan Rodgers after the 3-0 win over Inverness Caley Thistle the former Dundee United man was back in his preferred midfield role for the trip to Ayrshire.
There was one surprise in the Celtic line up when Dedryck Boyata was drafted in to the defence for his first appearance of the season. Kolo Toure did make it onto the bench but Jozo Simunovic wasn’t risked on the artificial pitch.
Moussa Dembele had a ‘goal’ disallowed midway through the first half but three minutes before the interval Armstrong made the breakthrough when he slotted his shot past Jamie MacDonald after racing onto a through pass from Moussa Dembele that broke off a Kilmarnock defender.
FIRST HALF: Watch the best of the action from Rugby Park as Celtic lead Kilmarnock 1-0 thanks to Stuart Armstrong https://t.co/O5V4uSDC5k pic.twitter.com/qpNiMIG4vy
— Scottish Sun Sport (@scotsunsport) November 18, 2016
Celtic were never really able to get into their stride with Killie’s dogged defending and the artificial pitch strangling the creativity out of the game.
Kilmarnock created a few half chances late in the game but there was no real threat to Craig Gordon who hasn’t lost a domestic goal since replacing Dorus de Vries at the end of September.
CELTIC: Gordon; Lustig, Boyata, Sviatchenko; Roberts, Brown, McGregor, Armstrong, Sinclair; Forrest Dembele
SUBS De Vries, Gamboa, Izaguirre, Toure, Rogic, Bitton, Christie