Celtic ran hoops around Saints
Continuing our look back to 2014
Premiership, Jan 5, 2014
St Mirren............0
Celtic ................. 4
Saints were ripped apart by a second-half goal blitz – after matching Celtic for most of the first 45 minutes.
The Buddies had no answer to the visitors’ firepower and wilted under incessant pressure after the break.
Danny Lennon named the same starting 11 who had pushed Kilmarnock close at Rugby Park on January 2.
Gary Harkins, on loan at Oldham Athletic till the end of the season, was the only absentee, with young Mark Williams filling the void on the bench.
The game was only two minutes old when Kris Commons broke from midfield. He played a ball into Anthony Stokes but Darren McGregor stepped in to nick it away from his feet.
Commons then fed James Forrest, who crossed deep, but Jason Naismith headed to safety.
Naismith then conceded another corner when he blocked Joe Ledley’s attempted cross.
It was hardly the start Saints gaffer Lennon would have wanted but the home side were chasing shadows in the middle of the park.
But the Buddies broke up the park in seven minutes.
John McGinn played a great ball to Adam Campbell, who took a touch before spreading it wide to Stephen Thompson, but Thommo was surrounded by defenders and the move petered out.
With 18 minutes on the clock, Commons won the ball in midfield and drove forward. He played in Stokes but Marc McAusland was on hand to block the drive from the edge of the box.
Moments later, McGinn was the architect of a fine Saints move. He fed Sean Kelly, who hit the byline and swung over a great cross, but it was just inches too high for Thompson.
Conor Newton then played it wide to Naismith, who whipped in a low cross, which Ambrose managed to clear for a corner.
But the home side had a real let-off moments later. Commons flicked a ball into the path of Charlie Mulgrew. His low shot beat Kello but came back off the post and into the grateful Slovak’s arms.
McGregor then had to look lively to clear a Forrest cross from the lurking Stokes.
On the half hour, Commons beautifully chipped Kello from 20 yards but his audacious effort came back off the post. However, blunder ref John Beaton gave a corner. From the resultant kick, McAusland broke from defence with the ball but was crudely brought down by Scott Brown, who was booked.
Eight minutes before the break, Thompson and Campbell combined to set up McGinn, but his 30-yard drive was way too high.
Saints had grown into the game and deserved to be level at the break.
But it was Celtic who took the lead seven minutes into the second half. Adam Matthews was allowed the freedom of the Saints box and played a hopeful ball across the six-yard box, where Mulgrew poked it into the far corner past a helpless Kello.
Six minutes later, Ledley slipped in Stokes, who curled a right-footed shot past Kello for Celtic’s second.
Kello then pulled off two worldclass saves from long-range shots from Brown and Stokes, but couldn’t prevent Commons heading a third on the 70th minute.
The same player bagged a fourth for the Hoops when he fired home from 12 yards two minutes later.
It was a cruel lesson in the art of finishing from the clinical visitors.