5 The last
St Johnstone 0 Celtic 3: January 29, 2020, Scottish Premiership, McDiarmid Park –Saints were blown away by Celtic in the first half of this most recent league fixture. The Perth side had no response to goals from Olivier Ntcham, James Forrest and Leigh Griffiths, all the goals coming in the first 30 minutes.
Manager Tommy Wright introduced new signing Jamie McCart, a central defender, on for his debut at half-time and he helped steady the ship after the break. But the damage had been done.
Boss Wright said:“We didn’t start the game well – passive, defended too deep, allowed too many crosses, didn’t put a tackle in, didn’t win a header in our own box.”
Celtic 7 St Johnstone 0: August 3, 2019, Scottish Premiership, Celtic Park – The first game of the 2019/20 Premiership campaign and one to certainly forget for the Perth club.
Pre-season results hadn’t gone to plan – crashing out of the Betfred Cup at the group stage – but few thought a hammering of this magnitude was going to take place.
It was one of those afternoons when Celtic looked likely to score with every attack. Michael Johnston’s early strike and a Ryan Christie double had the hosts on easy street at half-time.
Christie went on to complete his hat-trick before Olivier Ntcham, Odsonne Edouard and Leigh Griffiths inflicted further pain.
“We needed a couple of days to get over it,”said skipper Jason Kerr.
Celtic 5 St Johnstone 0: February 10, 2019, Scottish Cup, Celtic Park – Last year’s Scottish Cup journey came to a shuddering halt in this fifth round fixture in Glasgow. Saints’afternoon was pretty much over in the opening 10 minutes when they found themselves two down. And, while that is how the score stood at the break, Celtic upped the tempo once more to breeze into the last 8. Scott Sinclair netted a hat-trick, with Scott Brown and James Forrest also on the scoresheet.
Saints midfielder Murray Davidson said:“They are a top-quality team. If Celtic play to their maximum, they are going to win most games, that is a given.” St Johnstone 0 Celtic 2: February 3, 2019, Scottish Premiership, McDiarmid Park – The middle fixture of three in the space of 12 days against Celtic. Saints did make life more difficult for the Glasgow visitors this time around and they actually required two late goals to secure a three-point haul.
Perth goalkeeper Zander Clark was in fine form and pulled off a number of smart stops. But James Forrest broke the deadlock in the 78th minute before Timothy Weah wrapped up the win.
“I’m disappointed for them, we did ask for an improved performance and we got that,”said Tommy Wright.
Celtic 2 St Johnstone 0: January 30, 2019, Scottish Premiership, Celtic Park – It was the first meeting between the teams in 2019 and Saints certainly put in the required effort.
But there was a lack of quality on the ball and that gifted possession back to Celtic on far too many occasions.
The pocket of travelling supporters were holding on to a glimmer of hope when the score remained blank at the break. But early second half goals from Callum McGregor and Ryan Christie ended the chance of a positive result.
Liam Craig said:“We huffed and puffed but didn’t have a real threat going forward.”