CELTIC HAVE LOST ONLY ONCE IN 59 DOMESTIC GAMES

CELTIC have lost only once to Scottish opposition during actual playing time in their last FIFTY-NINE games.

The Hoops have racked up an unbeaten sequence of 42 matches under Brendan Rodgers this season and you can use the Sportingbet promo code to check on the chances of this being extended for 5 more games to give Celtic an unbelievable Invincible season.

However, with Ronny Deila in charge, they were defeated only once in a regulation game in his last 17 outings before he made way for the Irishman in the summer.

The Hoops went out of the Scottish Cup semi-final 5-4 on penalty-kicks to Sevco Rangers in April last year, but the result in the record books show it as a 2-2 draw after extra-time.

The last time domestic opposition actually turned over the Bhoys during the allotted playing time was on May 11, 2016 when St Johnstone triumphed 2-1 at McDiarmid Park.

Celtic went into that encounter on the back of an unbeaten run of 15 games.

A goal from Graham Cummins 13 minutes from time gave the Perth outfit the points, but Deila’s men had already wrapped up the club’s fifth successive title two games earlier with a 3-1 victory over Hearts at Tynecastle.

Remarkably, only two players who turned out against the Saints just under a year ago survived to start the Scottish Cup semi-final against the Ibrox  newco outfit – Patrick Roberts and Callum McGregor.

On the Wednesday evening in Perth, Tom Rogic came on as an 80th-minute substitute for Scott Allan, who has spent this campaign on loan at relegated Championship side Rotherham.

Kieran Tierney, Stuart Armstrong and James Forrest, who all played at Hampden at the weekend, were unused subs along with keeper Leo Fasan, who joined Port Vale on a five-month contract in January.

Belgian shotstopper Logan Bailly made just his fourth league appearance of the season against Tommy Wright’s men in only the club’s fourth Premiership reverse of the campaign, following losses to Aberdeen (twice) and Motherwell.

Deila, in his second – and last – year with the Glasgow giants, selected a back four of Saidy Janko, who is currently on a temporary transfer at Barnsley, Efe Ambrose, on an emergency loan deal at Hibs, Erik Sviatchenko and Emilio Izaguirre.

Teenager Anthony Ralston replaced Swiss Under-21 right-back Janko 16 minutes from the end.

Danish international defender Sviatchenko has been on the bench for the last two games, but there has been no sign of Honduran left-back Izaguirre, who, along with Ambrose, is out of contract in the summer.

Stefan Johansen, who joined Fulham in a £1.2million deal in August, got the nod from his fellow-Norwegian Deila for a place in midfield.

It was one of his last appearances for the Hoops and he marked the occasion by gifting Steven MacLean the equalising goal after Leigh Griffiths had opened the scoring.

Nir Bitton, who also missed out on Rodgers’ 18 for the Cup semi-final, replaced Johansen after the hour mark.

Allan, bought by Deila for £300,000 from Hibs in August 2015, made only his second league start of the campaign before being replaced by Aussie World Cup playmaker Rogic while Ryan Christie enjoyed only his third Premiership appearance.

The former Inverness Caley Thistle ace, of course, joined Aberdeen on loan in January.

Patrick Roberts played the entire game wide on the right and McGregor lasted the 90 minutes, too.

Griffiths, who came on for the injured Moussa Dembele in the first-half against Pedro Caixinha’s side in the semi and scored in the 5-1 rout at the weekend, had reason to celebrate in Perth.

He became the first Celtic player since Henrik Larsson in 2004 to claim 40 goals in one season.

It looked as though the game was drifting towards a draw when error-prone Ambrose tangled with keeper Bailly at a high ball to present a gift-wrapped opportunity for Cummins to stroke in the winner.

The Nigerian enigma made only two appearances for Rodgers this season before disappearing off the first team radar.

Ambrose has been told he has no future at Parkhead and will be on the look-out for a new club in the summer.

The defender did, however, feature in Deila’s farewell outing in the last league game of the season when the Norwegian said goodbye in style with the champions thumping Motherwell 7-0.

The last Celtic team to lose in actual play was: Bailly; Janko (sub: Ralston 74), Ambrose, Sviatchenko, Izaguirre; Johansen (sub: Bitton 66), McGregor; Roberts, Allan (sub: Rogic 80), Christie; Griffiths.