THIS was a taste of the season ahead for Celtic and it was a somewhat bitter one after Tuesday’s defeat in Malmo. They came back from a goal down to win with something to spare, yet with a performance flawed enough to encourage St Johnstone and irritate their own supporters at times. As Ronny Deila persisted with his familiar post-match routine to the four stands, he was met with something several decibels short of a roar. There is still a lot of making up to do between the Celtic manager and his public.
Probably more troubling to the business minds who run Celtic than a banner unveiled beforehand which read: “Gutless in Malmo, Clueless in boardroom”, were the patches of empty seats in other sections of the stadium.
Celtic even made a placatory signing during the first-half, confirming the arrival of Tyler Blackett on a year’s loan from Manchester United, presumably to replace Virgil Van Dijk, who is expected to depart before Tuesday’s transfer deadline, but who played here nonetheless. Blackett came onto the pitch at half-time in another attempt to gee-up the supporters.
A departure that nobody had planned for was that of Scott Brown. The Celtic and Scotland captain came off worse in a 50-50 with Chris Millar and the legacy was a dead leg which forced him to hobble off just before the hour.
Gordon Strachan will hope it does not affect his participation in Tbilisi in Friday night, as Brown also missed Scotland’s 2-0 defeat there in 2007. “I think everybody can be calm that he’ll be ready for the games against Georgia and Germany,” said Deila, who did confirm that Stuart Armstrong is out of them due to a back injury.
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“It’s a contact injury. I spoke to the medical staff after the game and they said it wasn’t anything big or serious.”
The European hangover was not helped one bit by Celtic conceding a sloppy goal after 11 minutes. Michael O’Halloran’s cross from the right was awkward, but no more than that, yet Craig Gordon failed to cut it out and the ball spun in off Dedryck Boyata. It was the Belgium international’s second own goal in five days, as he found his own net in Sweden on Tuesday, too.
Leigh Griffiths looked the man most likely to shake Celtic from their stupor by adding to the seven goals he has scored already in a productive campaign, and so it proved.
The striker had already seen a header cleared from the line by Tam Scobbie when he cut back onto his favoured left foot on the edge of St Johnstone’s box and scored with a fierce shot which took a double deflection off Wotherspoon and then Scobbie on its way past Alan Mannus.
Deila’s lineup was a reflection on the defeat in Malmo, with Stefan Johansen, rested or rotated, depending on how you describe being dropped these days, and Emilio Izaguirre restored at left-back in place of Charlie Mulgrew.
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The Honduras international nearly didn’t make it to half-time after a jarring clash of skulls with Murray Davidson as he bravely denied the St Johnstone midfielder a free header.
Yet it was Davidson and St Johnstone who came off worse in the end, as the midfielder appeared to be groggy when robbed in his own box by Tom Rogic shortly afterwards.
The Australian then danced round Dave Mackay and finished sweetly into the far corner to give Celtic a half-time lead that went a little way to soothing their supporters but was harsh on St Johnstone.
Davidson came off at half-time suffering from symptoms of concussion. “He was a bit confused and felt he was going to be sick, so there’s no way we are going to risk him,” said Tommy Wright, his manager. “I haven’t seen the doctor after the game. I imagine he doesn’t have to go to hospital or he’d have been taken away. It doesn’t seem too serious.
“I haven’t seen the goal back, so I don’t know if he was out-muscled on it because it’s quite a bit away from me.
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“I think he will be disappointed because he might have done better with it, but I’m not going to pick on an individual. We win and lose as a team and we know we could have defended, particularly the last two goals, better.”
Brown, meanwhile, was replaced by Mulgrew, who extended Celtic’s lead shortly after coming on, by turning the ball in from close range after Van Dijk won a knockdown in St Johnstone’s six-yard box following Commons’ cross from the right.
St Johnstone then spurned some decent chances. Graham Cummins couldn’t sort his feet out when John Sutton knocked the ball down to him in the box, and then Sutton clipped the crossbar when he should have scored from his position near the penalty spot.
Gordon also came to Celtic’s rescue with a fine double save from Joe Shaughnessy and O’Halloran as Celtic held onto their lead in a listless end to a disappointing week.
Celtic: Gordon 6, Janko 5, Boyata 5, Van Dijk 7, Izaguirre 7, Brown 6 (Mulgrew 59min 7), Bitton 5 (McGregor 87min 5), Commons 6 (Allan 77min 5), Rogic 7, Mackay-Steven 5, Griffiths 7
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St Johnstone: Mannus 6, Shaughnessy 6, Mackay 6, Scobbie 7, Easton 6, O’Halloran 7, Millar 7, Davidson 5 (Craig 46min 5), Cummins 6 (Kane 81min 5), MacLean 6 (Sutton 68min 6)