Celtic moved to within goal difference of securing the Scottish Premier League title by opening up an 18 point lead with six games remaining after a two goal victory over St Johnstone at Celtic Park today. Second half goals from Georgios Samaras and an own goal by Chris Millar settled the game which looked even for long spells.
Samaras has been like a player reborn in recent weeks and continued in the same manner today. From the opening minutes of the game he thundered down the left wing using pace and skill at close quarters to strain the St Johnstone defence.
Gary Hooper could have done better when Anthony Stokes fed him early on but his chip was collected by St Johnstone keeper Allan Mannus. Once play stopped referee Salmond booked Maybury for his foul on Stokes as the Celtic striker played the ball forward for Hooper but despite therefore acknowledging the offence, the ref failed to pull play back after Hooper failed to gain any advantage.
Kris Commons is still looking for his first goal of the season and twice came close today. In the first half Stokes held the ball inside the box until Commons arrives to shoot from 8 yards but he knocked the effort narrowly wide. In the second half a swerving shot was on target for the top right corner of the net before Mannus got a touch.
Liam Craig was St Johnstone’s principle threat and he brought a good save out of Fraser Forster from a free kick midway through the first half. Celtic struggled to create much in the opening period but Michael Lustig crossed from the right wing but found no takers despite running along the six yard line.
Celtic should have taken the lead a minute from the break. Commons sent in a free kick, Samaras missed a header and Mannus blocked but Charlie Mulgrew was on hand the head the rebound, only to see his effort cleared off the line.
Cillian Sheridan and Francisco Sandaza both had good headed efforts to open the scoring early in the second half but neither found the target.
Celtic stepped up the pace just after the hour after Ki and Matthews replaced Stokes and Lustig. Scott Brown saw a shot from inside the D saved.
The opening goal arrived on 66 minutes after Georgios Samaras was involved in a couple of scuffles. The Greek international was grounded inside the box and was then shoved off the ball within seconds of getting back to his feet, again inside the box but the referee didn’t see it. Samaras clearly took exception to this treatment and a moment later shielded the ball using his body until he was dragged to the ground.
It looked like a feisty play by Samaras who was clearly animated. When Kris Commons swung in the resultant free kick Samaras rose and headed back across goal and into the net.
St Johnstone pressed forward looking for an equaliser and might have got one had Adam Matthews not made a last ditch interception to turn the ball behind for a corner. With St Johnstone forward for the set piece Celtic broke quickly. Commons carried the ball forward, and with everyone one else on the field running at full pace, he took a second before sending a 60 yard pass across field to Ki. Ki moved inside before playing the ball out to Samaras on the right. Samaras crossed for Hooper but the ball was turned into the net by Millar.
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tamstered on 2 April, 2012 at 10:24 said:
woohoo got ticket for ayrshire huns £31.50
=================================
League Cup Final ticket £24, normal league game £31.50.
And they reckon they can survive without us, and we are ripping them off.!
Lennon ‘n….
can you help me with Cavatina…..it’s a real sod! :-)
Miki….That last episode of those who kill was a belter. Not watched homeland at all.
Hail Hail
Estadio
67Heaven
Great keeper but with injuries i am the same as you.
I’d be more than happy for us to sign FF permanently, He has a great future ahead of him. I hope it’s at CP
about a hour
tiger
Ive been thinking that too. Their deadline for being ellegible for europe has past to the sound of a deafening silence. For next season SPL??
A similar deafening silence that followed the last Friday C4 expose.
@celticrumours: http://t.co/qjYoYl0p from @charleslavery
Tamstered, just got mine – hopefully worth the wait!
sixtaeseven in gay Paree, slightly off topic but some tourism advice needed !
arriving in paris on Saturday night, travelling during the Killie game sadly so I will be watching the game by text !
Hadn’t thought about it before we booked but obviously it’s the Easter weekend coming up. Do you know if Paris will be on shutdown on Easter Sunday and Monday ?
£31.50???!!!!
Rip off b*s****s. Absolute joke. Nay, an outrage. I’m sick of these diddy teams fleecing Celtic for visiting their pathetic excuse for a stadium. Kilmarnock v Motherwell on 24 March – £15 I’m led to believe for visiting fans. No doubt that type of pricing structure is repeated throughout the land. But when Celtic come visiting, we’re stung.
I’ve been a regular at away games for over 10 years now, and seen a gradual increase at each and every away ground. In fact, the only ones that haven’t really increased all that much are probably Inverness & Aberdeen, though it costs a bloody fortune to get there from the Central Belt!!
HH
Giggs
Pedantics r us Paul67 but we can’t win the league by goal difference.
what a bassa
canny go tae the game on sat
my only chance this season tae
Lads I need a bit of help here, do any of you have an email address for kerrydale street.
finally got through on-line tickets purchased , I will be seeing that we red progress line all day , £30 a ticket rip off merchants ,
worth it for my bhoy to see us win the league in the flesh for the first time
Timabhouy on 2 April, 2012 at 10:08
The Harp?
I go from time to time, but it means a train and a metro, so I see most games at home on Ch67. Might go down next Saturday, there spould be a good crowd/atmosphere.
has 4 tickets in my basket before the site crashed, been watching a static status bar for over an hour now, and don’t know if the tickets will still be in my basket or not,, and the phone line just hangs up,,,,,,,,, tried to call reception and moved from 5th in the que to first before the automated system cut me off,,,,,,,i’m far from being impressed,
I thought tickets for next week were only £26??
Pleasure to meet up with so many genuine good guys from CQN after yesterday’s game.
Oh and MWD was there too :-)
cardiffbhoy on 2 April, 2012 at 10:39
Sacré Coeur and Notre Dame will be open.
Don’t know about anything else.
Je blague…
;o)
sixtaeseven, cheers, I was worrying more about pubs and restaurants !
Scorching in French Alps, anyone got a link to see goals from yesterday?
Anyone who thinks Lustig was poor yesterday knows very, very little about football. He was taken off for tactical reasons. We needed a more attacking full back for the second half.
Also, to say the game was ” keech” shows a rather blinkered view of Celtic and our performances this season. St Johnstone made a game of it yesterday but we fought hard and were rewarded with a deserved victory. I enjoyed the game. I feel that some ” fans” would be better off simply looking at the results and the League Table.
JJ
Midfield Maestro
Bigjie posted the highlights at 08.51, page 9
S O T – Absolutely loved the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers and Fat Freddy’s Cat….great memories.
Busted !
T4
“Anyone who thinks Lustig was poor yesterday knows very, very little about football. He was taken off for tactical reasons”
You may be right, but he gave the ball away with sloppy passes on quite a few occasions. I guess, tactically, it made sense to bring on someone who would not do that.
cardiffbhoy
There’ll be no problem with cafés, bistrots, brasseries and restaurants.
There’ll be no problem with pubs either.
Enjoy!
just got through on the phone line to ticket centre.
SOLD OUT
! ! !
That has nothing to do with tactics.
JJ
cardiffbhoy on 2 April, 2012 at 11:02 said:
Hopefully for you the catacombs will be open.
The best thing to see in Paris. Fascinating.
St Johnstone are well organised and difficult to beat especially when our two strikers have lost their vim and vigour. Luckily our Greek Ghod has stepped up to the plate but we could do with Hooper and Stokes getting up to speed asap.
For me Lustig put the best cross of the day in that was screaming to be slammed into the net. He’ll do well for us.
That clown Keys on Talksport has just called the Record the Daily Ranger, maybe he’s not all bad!
Jungle jim. I have to agree with your post St. Johnstone worked hard and were prepared to attack when they got the chance.It took the hoops a bit of time to wear them down we have to remember Saints are fourth in the league and had not lost a goal in some consideable time.I enjoyed the game and think while were never at our best it was a good result.H.H.
I thought Lustig was our best player in the 1st half yesterday. Won every challenge i saw him make. Might not have been up and down the wing like Izzy and Matthews but he did what he had to do and we didnt concede a goal.
Sixtaeseven.
seventyxseven ‘gelee et glace’ on 2 April, 2012 at 00:22 said:
Rangerstaxcase
“I am not going to go down the list of players at this point, but those who lie about it in the media will be exposed at the right time.”
Wow! That’s some post from RTC.
Just catching up, That comment will keep me going for a while:)))))
They know who they are!!!!!!!!!!.
HAIL HAIL
It was hard to pick out one player for poor passing yesterday. Not many pass marks (if you pardon the pun) in that department yesterday.
Lustig looked not bad for his 2nd? start. Think we need to give players a bit more time before writing them off. That goes for Blackman, Bouncey Bangura and Brozek. The bhoys will come good.
The honest mistake @11:11
Cheers, will check them out.
Anybody who expected a football feast in such blustery conditions against a hard-working, well drilled & capable opposition will NEVER be satisfied.
Well done, Celtic.
Another vital win.
Morning Ghuys
Anything on channel 4 this week from Tommo?
T 4 @ 11 06.
Me -too.
Memories of buying the comic from the 2 guys who sold The International Times / OZ etc from a pitch outside The Wimpy Bar on Bath Street. One was a Rangers supporter , the other supported PTFC.
I was seriously disappointed in the movie !
Mr Natural CSC – Way down south.
I thought St Johnstone were organised and resilient yesterday. We got the sort of game I expected from a team with only 2 losses away from home all season.
I was impressed with Sandaza. He reminds me of big Sammi but not as good.
I can picture big Sammi scoring on Saturday after one of his rampaging runs against the Ayrshire Huns. He’ll then be embraced by the adoring Celtic fans behind the goal, the yellow card will be worth it!