ST MIRREN 1 CELTIC 2
CELTIC had to overcome VAR disallowing two goals, awarding St Mirren a penalty-kick and coming back from a goal down to earn the points in Paisley this evening.
It was a genuine heroic true grit performance from the champions who eventually clinched their fifth successive Premiership victory to move five points clear at the pinnacle.
Liam Scales was a hero and villain in a frantic clash while Yang Hyun-jun was the matchwinner after some unselfish work by the ever-willing Camilo Duran.
TAKE-OFF…Yang Hyun-jun celebrates his winner against St Mirren.
Dame Fortune positively snarled on the Hoops during a dramatic first-half where two key decisions went against the visitors with the hosts benefiting twice from VAR decisions.
The first incident occurred in the 22nd minute and Viljami Sinisalo and Scales will have to accept responsibility for the goal that gave the Saints an interval advantage.
Initially, the keeper misjudged a low shot from Fraser Taylor that was sweeping wide of his right-hand post.
Sinisalo got his angles all wrong as he scrambled across his line to parry the effort and it was smuggled clear for a corner-kick to the Paisley men.
Worse was to follow. The left-wing corner-kick wasn’t cleared properly and a shot was fired back into the crowded box from 30 yards.
Scales stuck up his left hand to divert the ball away from goal. Don Robertson, at the VAR controls, reviewed the situation before passing on information to referee Ryan Lee who immediately pointed to the penalty spot.
Nikolas Agrafiotis stepped up to accept the award and fairly lashed his kick wide of the despairing Sinisalo to his right.
NO GOAL…relentless frontman Camilo Duran diverts the ball into the St Mirren net, but VAR rules it out for offside.
Celtic, though, believed they were back on level terms on the half-hour mark when Duran struck to turn a low left-wing cross from Yang into the net from close range.
The match official didn’t see anything wrong, but once again VAR stepped in and the ‘goal’ was ruled out for offside. Pictures showed that possibly the Colombian’s big toe was in an illegal position as he dived forward to make contact.
Five minutes from the interval, Callum McGregor had the opportunity to equalise, but the skipper didn’t make a proper connection with the ball as it dropped to his feet in the box and keeper Jacob Chapman was given the opportunity to push the effort over the bar.
Celtic had been warned as early as the 15th minute they would have to battle all the way to get anything from this fixture when Yang latched onto a crossfield ball from Cameron Carter-Vickers and produced some tricky footwork on the left touchline.
He whipped in a dangerous low drive, but was out of luck when his drive hit the base of the right-hand post and ricocheted to safety.
THE EQUALISER…Liam Scales thumps a header high past Saints keeper Jacob Chapman.
The Hoops, though, restarted at whirlwind pace and penalty-kick sinner Scales atoned for his earlier mistake with a superb equaliser.
Six minutes into the second-half, Benjamin Nygren sent over an inviting right-wing corner-kick and the Republic of Ireland international’s timing was absolute perfection as he rose to thump a header high past the helpless Chapman.
Amazingly, Scales almost repeated the feat a couple of moments later when he was first to a left-wing corner-kick from Mika Baur, but on this occasion his near-post header flashed wide.
In the 68th minute, Celtic finally got their reward for their persistence when they went ahead and a lot of the credit must go to the hard-working Duran.
The Colombian raced back to win a tackle and immediately turn defence into attack with a surge towards enemy territory before sliding a delightful pass in front of Yang.
The South Korean took the ball in his stride as he rampaged into the box before easing a low shot under the advancing keeper for what turned out to be the matchwinner.
THE WINNER…Yang Hyun-jun slides the ball under the keeper for the points-clincher.
Five minutes after his strike, Yang, who had just taken a knock after a collision with Chapman, was replaced by James Forrest while Sebastian Tounekti came on for Haissem Hassan and Baur made way for Oliver Sorensen.
Ten minutes later, Shim Mheuka was introduced to the action for Duran who had worked tirelessly all night for the team.
Dane Murray came on for Donovan in the 87th minute as the visitors attempted to see out the game.
Tounekti should have made sure in the second minute of stoppage-time when he was sent clean through following a clever pass from Sorensen, but, remarkably, the Tunisian winger somehow squeezed his effort wide of the post.
A minute later, on-loan Chelsea striker Mheuka looked to have scored the third when he took a pass from Nygren in his stride and lured the keeper before rolling the ball into the net.
NO GOAL…Shum Mheuka whips a low shot past Jacob Chapman for what looks like a good third goal for Celtic, but for a second time VAR nullify the strike.
The new Bhoy’s joy was short-lived when VAR intervened once again, referee Lee checked the touchline monitor and returned to the pitch to award a free-kick to the Saints following another marginal offside call.
Celtic deserve massive credit for never giving up, despite everything going against them in an encounter when their opponents played like men possessed and clattered into every challenge in an extremely competitive confrontation.
O’Neill’s side showed the stuff of champions against opposition well fired-up for the task.
Well done, Bhoys!
TEAM: Sinisalo; Donovan (sub: Murray 87), Carter-Vickers, Trusty, Scales; Nygren, McGregor, Baur (sub: Sorensen 73); Hassan (sub: Forrest 73), Duran (sub: Mheuka 83), Yang (sub: Tounekti 73).
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