Celtic 1-0 St Johnstone
The champions stretched some of the limbs from their squad against St Johnstone tonight as a first half Anthony Stokes goal secured the points. It was one of those rare, balmy, Celtic Park occasions when three or four layers of clothing were sufficient, not the customary seven or eight.
Highlight for the evening was the standing ovation for captain-for-the-night, Mark Wilson. A 22-year-old Wilson joined Celtic over six years ago and provided us with some great memories, most notably his Scottish Cup-tie winning goal against Rangers last season, but his career has been blighted by injury since late 2006, robbing him of hundreds of appearances for the team he has supported all his life.
Moh Bangura had a rare 90 minutes and was unfortunate not to open his Celtic scoring account. Anthony Stokes played a drear cross-field pass to Bangura, who was some 40 yards away. The striker from Sierra Leone had options but made space for a shot which rebounded back off the post.
Bangura has a hand in Stokes earlier goal. He got a touch on a 28th minute corner pushing the ball to Stokes who finished clinically.
Thereafter the outcome was never in doubt, although Celtic were seldom clinical. 21-year-old Nigerian Rabiu Ibrahim made his Celtic on 74 minutes when he replaced Kris Commons and looked comfortable on the ball.