Celts give Saints the festive blues
WITH FOOTBALL IN COLD STORAGE WE TAKE A LOOK AT OLD ST
Paul Behan
There was little festive cheer for St Mirren yesterday as they sank to a defeat that leaves them rock bottom of the SPFL Premiership.
Scott Brown opened the scoring for the league leaders Celtic after just four minutes but Sean Kelly levelled matters for Saints, under the interim charge of Gary Teale.
But two quickfire goals from James Forrest and Brown put paid to any thoughts of a Saints upset in the east end of Glasgow.
Star Saint:
Mark Ridgers
The Saints goalkeeper was a busy man yesterday but he produced several important saves to keep the scoreline respectable. Nominations so far: 4- Kenny McLean, 2-Isaac Osbourne 1-James Marwood, Jim Goodwin, Ross Caldwell, Thomas Reilly, Jeroen Tesselaar, Jason Naismith, Mark Ridgers.
Match Facts
Score Celtic 4 St Mirren 1
Scorer Brown (4, 18), Kelly (10), Forrest (16), Stokes (67) Bookings None
Red Cards None
Referee Craig Thomson
Attendance 44,827
Teams: Celtic (4-4-2) Gordon, Matthews, Izaguirre, Ambrose, Van Dijk, Biton (Henderson 68), Brown, Guidetti (Scepovic 60), Stokes, Johansen, Forrest (McGregor 46). Subs not used- Zaluska, Commons, Griffiths, Fisher.
St Mirren (4-4-1-1) Ridgers, Naismith, Kelly, McAusland, Goodwin, McGinn, McLean, Thompson (Ball 75), Osbourne (Mallan 82), Reilly (Marwood 70), Tesselaar. Subs not usedKello, Drury, Caldwell, Morgan
Ridgers got down well to beat away a Guidetti effort as the Swede threatened to make it 4-1.
Early in the second half , Celtic’s Emilio Izaguirre brought out a save from Ridgers after he took a Virgil Van Dijk upfield pass and homed in on goal, before Stokes tapped home a shot from inches out but the goal didn’t stand as the Irishman was way offside.
Dutch full-back Jeroen Tesselaar was, perhaps, harshly penalised for a foul on Guidetti and the Hoops won a free-kick 20 yards out in a very inviting position.
With Guidetti receiving treatment, it was down to fellow forward Stokes to take the free-kick but he curled it up and over the wall and just inches wide. Ridgers then defied Celtic again by putting his body in front of Johansen to deny him what looked to be goal number four in the 58th minute and doing just enough to take the sting out of the Norwegian’s shot.
The fourth goal was a personal catastrophe for McAusland as the Saints defender stumbled in possession at the edge of the box before getting his pocket pinched by Johansen.
Possession was then switched to Stokes inside the penalty box and the Celtic number 10 sent a low shot into the bottom right-hand corner.
Late on, Scepovic was denied Celtic’s fifth goal by the left-hand post, his effort bouncing back before being cleared.