Celtic grinds out win as Baur scores first goal
Mika Baur’s first Celtic goal was hardly a classic, but it carried the weight of a title defence and a growing winning streak with it.
A simple tap-in, six straight Premiership wins, and a five-point gap to Rangers. Job done. Just not quite in the way Martin O’Neill had in mind.
Celtic grind it out as Baur breaks his duck
With a Europa League tie looming and an Old Firm double-header in cup and league on the horizon, O’Neill shuffled his pack. Five changes, Kasper Hogh back from injury to lead the line, and Sam Johnstone handed the gloves.
The reshaped side never really found their rhythm at McDiarmid Park. St Johnstone, unbeaten at home in the league this season, played like they believed that record would survive the champions’ visit.
They almost had the perfect start. Joel Cotterill, on his first Saints start, burst into the box on 19 minutes to meet Alic’s low cross and looked certain to score. Johnstone flung up his hands and palmed the ball over, a huge save that underpinned everything that followed.
Celtic had their moments before the break. Haissem Hassan drew a strong stop from the home keeper inside five minutes. Callum McGregor saw a deflected effort skid past the post, and from the resulting corner, Steward punched clear under pressure.
At the other end, St Johnstone carried a real threat. Diabate had one effort hooked off the line by Donovan, then glanced a Tounekti cross wide when he should have at least hit the target. O’Neill would later admit he never felt the hosts were out of the game, and the first half backed that up.
The pattern continued straight after the restart. McAlear drove through midfield, beat McGregor and slipped in Steven, but his shot went straight at Johnstone. Another warning. Another escape.
Then the pressure finally told.
On 52 minutes, Hassan darted down the right and drilled a low cross into the six-yard box. Baur arrived on cue, unmarked, and couldn’t miss. A first Celtic goal, a tap-in, but a vital one that eased the tension and tilted the afternoon back towards the champions.
Hassan denied, Saints threaten, Celtic cling on
The game refused to settle. Celtic tried to press home the advantage and thought they had done exactly that on 66 minutes.
Hogh rose at the back post to head the ball back across goal, Hassan thrashed it into the net and wheeled away, convinced he had his first goal for the club. The assistant’s flag – and his judgment – cut the celebrations short. The ball had already gone out of play before Hogh’s header.
Replays were inconclusive. From the gantry, James McFadden summed it up bluntly: without definitive proof, the on-field call stands. The assistant, right on the line of the cross, had decided it was out. The goal was gone. There was never any chance of VAR bailing Celtic out.
Hassan kept coming. On 71 minutes, Hogh teed him up on the edge of the box and the Egypt international curled a lovely effort towards the far corner, only for Steward to stretch and push it past the post.
James Forrest, off the bench and full of intent, almost settled it himself. He twisted and turned on the edge of the area, created space and lashed in a shot that Steward again beat away. The Saints keeper was refusing to let the scoreline run away from his side.
St Johnstone sensed there was still something in it for them. Alic slid an effort just inches wide on 80 minutes, the home crowd groaning as the ball shaved past the post. Moments later, Nygren slipped Hogh through and his low strike forced Steward into another save, this time at his near post.
Nygren then met a Forrest cross with a firm header, only to see it drop tamely into Steward’s arms. Celtic were hanging on to their lead, not cruising with it.
The champions’ control came in patches, not waves. Their passing was neat, but the cutting edge O’Neill demands never truly appeared. They had enough chances to kill the game and didn’t. St Johnstone had enough chances to punish them and couldn’t.
That, ultimately, decided the night.
O’Neill frustrated by wastefulness
When it was over, O’Neill’s face told the story before his words did. Satisfaction at the result, irritation at the route taken.
“We made goalscoring, which is very difficult, almost impossible,” he told Sky Sports. “We could have scored a number of goals, we didn’t do. It was just kind of crazy, really.
“I thought that somebody would just take responsibility, put it in the net and pass, pass, pass.
“Anyway, we’ve won the game, which I’m delighted with. It was the most important thing. I’m just really pleased.
“We could have scored a number of goals. I thought St Johnstone were never out of the game.
“Even if we got the second goal, I never felt St Johnstone were out of it.
“I have to remember that Sam Johnstone’s made a really great save in the first half. Otherwise, they would have taken the lead.”
Thirteen wins in a row in all competitions, stretching back into last season, is a powerful answer to any stylistic quibbles. But O’Neill knows performances like this leave the door ajar for stronger opponents.
Valakari left to rue missed moments
On the opposite touchline, Simo Valakari carried the look of a manager who knew his side had pushed the champions as far as they could without taking something tangible.
“We definitely had our moments, but at the same time we knew the threat of Celtic,” he said. “We knew they maybe have a little bit more possession. They have this final-third threat there and then it was just a moment.
“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.
“We know ourselves we can play. We can hurt teams.
“But then at the same time, you need to take these chances that we created because against this quality team, you don’t get that many.
“But we created enough to score a goal and that’s the kind of disappointment of this evening.”
St Johnstone’s unbeaten home record in the Premiership is gone, but their belief should not be. They went toe-to-toe with the champions and forced them to sweat for every minute of stoppage time.
Old Firm storm on the horizon
For Celtic, the table looks exactly how they want it. Six wins from six in the league, five points clear of Rangers, and momentum rolling into a brutal stretch of fixtures.
A Europa League tie first. Then Rangers twice – cup and league – with that five-point cushion on the line and the season’s early narrative up for grabs.
Baur has his first goal. Johnstone has his first big save in green and white. The winning run is intact.
Now comes the question that will define this phase of their season: can a Celtic side that makes goalscoring “almost impossible” turn this grinding efficiency into something ruthless when Rangers step into their path?
