ST JOHNSTONE 0 CELTIC 1
MIKA BAUR netted his first goal for Celtic as the champions made it six successive Premiership wins against St Johnstone at McDiarmid Park this evening.
The German midfielder, a £6.8million recruit from Bundesliga club SC Paderborn in the summer, got the only goal of the game in the 53rd minute to make sure the Parkhead pacesetters avoided a banana skin in Perth.
The Hoops had huffed and puffed without creating too much danger to keeper Toby Steward before Sebastian Tounekti launched a left-wing cross into the box.
It wasn’t cleared properly and fell to Kasper Hogh who knocked it to Haissem Hassan and he didn’t waste any time as he whipped a low ball across the penalty area from the right.
Baur’s timing was immaculate as he raced it to prod the ball home from four yards.
That timely strike was enough to keep the Hoops five points clear at the top of the table from Derek McInnes’ side who beat St Mirren 1-0 at Ibrox with a stoppage-time goal from Bojan Miovski.
The teams, of course, lock horns in the Premier Sports League Cup quarter-final in Govan on Sunday and again a week later in the Premiership at Parkhead.
NET GAIN…Mika Baur turns away in triumph after whipping in Celtic’s matchwinner, his first goal since his summer arrival.
Celtic had almost 70 per cent of possession in the first-half, but it took a wonder save from debut Bhoy Sam Johnstone to keep the scoreline blank at the interval.
The Hoops just could not take advantage of their superiority and the Saints came so close to showing them how it’s done in the 20th minute when they hit on the counter-attack.
The champions were in disarray at the back when a left-wing cross was fizzed into the box and Joel Cotterill caught the ball perfectly from 14 yards and it looked a goal as soon as the ball left his boot.
Johnstone, however, showed lightning reflexes to get across to his left, get a hand to the effort and divert it over the bar.
Martin O’Neill’s men were slow to get moving although Hassan looked lively on the right and as continually ran at the Perth rearguard.
The Egyptian World Cup winger got the team’s first shot on target when he thumped in an angled left-foot drive, but Toby Steward got down swiftly to turn the ball round his near post for a corner-kick.
LITTLE BIG MAN…Mika Baur celebrates his first Celtic goal as he maintains the champions’ 100 per cent league record in the win over St Johnstone in Perth.
Unfortunately, on the opposite wing, Tounekti looked strangely reluctant to try to get to the line and get a cross in. Frustratingly, the Tunisian ace, given the opportunity to impress with Yang Hyun-jun ruled out for four games as he represents South Korea in the Asian Games, played the ball or came inside and invariably the danger was snuffed out.
The Saints escaped in the 33rd minute when keeper Steward made a mess of trying to punch a Baur cross to safety.
He inadvertently knocked the ball back towards his own goal, but was bailed out by a defender at the expense of a corner-kick.
The new-look Hoops side was failing to click and too many passes were going astray, most notably from full-backs Colby Donovan and Liam Scales.
Oliver Sorensen, making his first start, was putting in a lot of effort without any return while Hogh was starved of service up front.
Three minutes into the second-half and the Hoops survived a scare after Sorensen had been dispossessed and Callum McGregor mistimed a tackle that left Taylor Steven with a clear sight of goal.
He walloped in a 12-yard drive, but Johnstone managed to block the effort and the rebound was smuggled clear.
Celtic’s response was emphatic as Baur, who was neat and tidy all night, knocked in what proved to be the winner.
CELEBRATING CELTS – AND SUFFERING SAINTS…Mika Baur prepares to score the champions’ winner against St Johnstone at McDiarmid Park.
The visitors thought they had doubled their advantage in the 63rd minute after a left-wing delivery from Tounekti was headed down by Hogh at the far post.
Hassan pounced to swivel and fire the ball past the stranded Steward into the net.
The linesman flagged for the ball being out of play as it came over from Tounekti and VAR didn’t have images to show otherwise so they went with the call from the referee’s assistant.
Three minutes later, Benjamin Nygren replaced Sorensen who never got to grips with the pace of the game in in the 71st minute Steward pulled off a brilliant save to deny Hassan after Hogh had placed a lay-off into his team-mate’s tracks.
The flanker hit the ball superbly and it appeared to be arcing at the far corner until the Saints shotstopper somersaulted across his line to push the effort to safety.
Three minutes afterwards, Camilo Duran and James Forrest were introduced to the action as replacements for Hassan and Tounekti.
Only moments later, evergreen Forrest twisted and turned on the edge of the box before unleashing a fierce drive that was heading for the keeper’s left-hand corner of the net only for Steward to produce another blinding save.
There was a fright for the Hoops in the 81st minute when Johnstone remained on the ground after diving for a shot from Enes Alic that edged just wide of the left-hand post.
Thankfully, the debutant was okay to resume after dome onfield treatment.
Two minutes later, the busy Steward thrust out a left foot to divert a shot from Hogh over the bar and shortly afterwards he was right in line to hold a Nygren header.
In the 87th minute, O’Neill threw on Kieran Tierney and Shim Mheuka for Scales and Hogh as he planned to see out the remainder of the game.
Steward foiled the on-loan Chelsea striker in stoppage-time with another excellent stop as he threw himself to his left to push away a netbound effort from the teenager.
It was a hard shift at a difficult venue, but Celtic will be pleased to go home with three points.
But this team doesn’t half make life difficult for themselves!
TEAM: Johnstone; Donovan, Murray, Trusty, Scales (sub: Tierney 87); Sorensen (sub: Nygren 66), McGregor, Baur; Hassan (sub: Duran 74), Hogh (sub: Mheuka 87), Tounekti (sub: Forrest 74).
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