CELTIC have now blasted in FOURTEEN goals in three games against St Mirren after firing blanks in the 2-0 loss in Paisley in September.
They added five in the 5-1 triumph this afternoon to restore their nine-point advantage at the Premiership summit.
They have turned over Stephen Robinson’s side 4-0 in the league at Parkhead in January and followed that up with a 5-1 victory in the Scottish at the same venue last month.
SAINTS AND WINNERS…Ange Postecoglou celebrates at the final whistle with the Celtic fans in Paisley.
The Hoops trailed 1-0 at the interval in Paisley on this occasion due to a controversial VAR-assisted penalty-kick in only in the sixth minute when Greg Taylor was adjudged to have handled the ball.
It was a preposterous decision by referee David Dickinson after he had been instructed to review the incident on his monitor on the touchline. Mark O’Hara gleefully accepted the gift and whipped a low drive past Joe Hart at the keeper’s right.
Remarkably, that was to be the home side’s only shot on target all day.
Trevor Carson, on the other hand, had to work overtime to ret to repel incessant Celtic raids, but had no answer to strikes from Filipe Jota, Alistair Johnston, Liel Abada, Matt O’Riley and Oh Hyeon-gyu, with a late penalty-kick.
Ange Postecoglou said: “We knew it would be a tough challenge for us here and after the penalty decision we had to maintain our composure and discipline and I thought the lads did that.
ON A WING AND A SLAYER…Liel Abada made a great impact as a second-half substitute.
“We didn’t get too carried away with the state of the game at that time and for the most part, we handled it well.
“Even when they went down to 10 men I thought we maintained our composure again and I thought the guys coming on gave us that extra bit of energy and drive.”
Abada had a massive influence when he was introduced for the ineffectual Daizen Maeda at the interval and Postecoglou, speaking to Celtic TV, continued: “He was great, all the boys that came on were fantastic in making an impact on the game and Liel was certainly one of those.
“The way the game was set up I thought it was going to suit him because he would have had a bit of space to beat people and he’s a really hard player to stop and he’s always a goal threat.
PICK IT OUT…Liel Abada fires Celtic’s third goal behind Trevor Carson.
“Credit to him because he’s a young man who has played a lot of football over the past two years and through that time he’s been consistent in making an impact on the game and he keeps improving.”
Looking at Aaron Mooy’s contribution, the Hoops boss added: “He’s consistently a player who stays calm in these conditions and he’s very clear-headed in what he needs to do and he’s been great for us.
“We know we’ve got a big game coming up and we need everyone involved in the squad this week to get the job done with two difficult games against Hearts in two different competitions.
“We’ve got guys who are ready to go and ready to contribute and we will use them all.”
