CELTIC had to draw on all their reserves of character and energy to overcome St Mirren 2-1 in Paisley last night.
The home side were up for the challenge and went into the encounter two points adrift of Martin O’Neill’s pacesetters and with the opportunity to leapfrog the champions into pole position in the Premiership.
This was highly-motivated opposition who were determined to put down a marker, one way or another, on this occasion.
SEEING DOUBLE…Shaun Maloney and Martin O’Neill shout instructions to the Celtic players from the touchline during the 2-1 win over St Mirren in Paisley.
Hoops new Bhoys such as Mika Baur, Hassiem Hassan, Camilo Duran, Oliver Sorensen and Shim Mheuka, who all figured in the no-holds-barred confrontation, will have learned a fair bit about the rigours and challenges of Scottish football and what to expect in the weeks and months ahead.
The Saints went in at the interval with a one-goal advantage from a penalty-kick after Liam Scales was adjudged to have used a hand to deflect a shot away from goal.
Duran thought he had equalised shortly afterwards, but after a contentious VAR call from Don Robertson it was ruled out for offside.
Scales atoned for his rush of blood to the head at the spot-kick by nodding in the equaliser shortly after the turnaround following a delightful right-wing corner-kick delivery from Benjamin Nygren.
And Yang Hyun-jun, who will now miss four games due to his involvement with South Korea in the Asian Games, whipped in the winner in the 68th minute after some marvellous work from the tireless Duran.
There was another debatable call in stoppage-time that again went against the visitors when referee Ryan Lee was instructed to check his touchline monitor after on-loan Chelsea teenager Mheuka had rolled in what looked like an excellent third goal.
After a quick check, the match official cancelled the strike, once again for offside.
It had been one of those nights.
A BIG HAND…Martin O’Neill acknowledges the Celtic fans after the victory in Paisley.
Afterwards, a beaming O’Neill said: “I’m naturally delighted to win the game and coming from behind, as well.
“We started the second-half very, very strongly and, while people might think it was a matter of time, it wasn’t really like that.
“But we score the goal and it sets us off greatly and we go on and win. We had a number of chances to really put it beyond them, but, honestly, I didn’t feel as if St Mirren were ever out of it.”
O’Neill, speaking to CelticPlayer, added: “So, I’m delighted we’ve won, which is what it’s about, and we showed some sparkling moments in the match, some really driving counter-attacking play, where we were very strong.
“In fact, the winning goal for us, we broke and we’ve had four breaking on it. And Yang scored a really great goal.”
Celtic now get a day off to take a breather before the manager and players prepare for Wednesday’s Premiership clash with newly-promoted St Johnstone in Perth.
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