Forrest to the four
●Six-goal Celtic rediscover ruthless streak as winger dispels talk of dressing-room unrest
Following the blizzard of bad vibes that seems to have buffeted Celtic this season, the avalanche of goals they produced in Perth yesterday will surely be considered the most effective means to change the climate around the club.
James Forrest may have appeared a one-man weather vane witharemarkable30-minutefourgoal first-half haul that handed Brendan Rodgers the biggest win of his two-and-a-half year tenure. The winger certainly had ice in his veins as he demonstrated ruthless running power and finishing to condemn Tommy Wright to the heaviest loss of his six years at the St Johnstone helm.
However, as Celtic claimed as many goals in 90 minutes yesterday as they had in their previous seven games, the visitors could count on a flurry of forward players to bury opponents who simply froze in the face of such an onslaught. Forrest, though, was to the fore in every respect, transforming his fortunes in the most outrageous fashion a matter of three days after he received a straight red card as he conceded a penalty as Celtic were slain 3-1 by Salzburg in the Europa League.
“After Thursday night it was disappointing for everyone, especially me personally,” he said. “We wanted another game quickly to get over it, so there is no better way to do that than scoring six goals and keeping a clean sheet. That’s the first time I have scored four goals for Celtic so it’s great. The manager has been wanting us to become more ruthless again and I think you saw that hunger from us from start to finish.
“We couldn’t have done much better – a result like that has been coming. We have been playing okay but not taking the chances, but we did that today and the score reflects it. Getting the goal early helps, after that we were pressing high up the park and creating chances. Was this my best performance? The goals were unbelievable, there is nothing better for your confidence than scoring. Sometimes you play well and don’t score, so that isn’t always remembered.”
Celtic looked more like their double-treble winning selves yesterday than at any point in the previous two months and while Forrest was reluctant to draw parallels, he was content to slap down talk of any dressing-room discord. “We have heard people say that but since the managercameinthe changing room has been very solid. “It’s easy to say there is a split in the changing room when you get a few bad results. But you can see we are getting there, there is definitely no split.
“You can’t keep talking about the last two seasons, they are in the past now. It is a new one, the league is tougher because teams have improved.
“It’s getting harder every year and we have to make sure we keep putting in more performances like
“It’s easy to say there’s a split in the changing room when you get a few bad results. But you can see we are getting there, there is definitely no split. You can’t keep talking about the last two seasons, they are in the past now. The league is tougher this season because other teams have improved”
that. Slowly but surely we are getting there.”
Chances were exchanged between the two sides before Forrest set the trouncing in motion with a 15th-minute strike that exemplified the contrasting fortunes to come for both teams.
A slip by Scott Tanser allowed Forrest to bore into the box. He fed Tom Rogic, who then slipped it to Odsonne Edouard for a shooting opportunity that was saved by Zander Clark, only for Forrest to ram in the follow-up despite the keeper getting a hand to the ball.
Celtic sleek and swarming, St Johnstone stiff and sloppy and Clark coming up with smart saves covered so much of what unfolded thereafter. Wright acknowledged as much in admitting afterwards his side could have lost ten but for the half-dozen stops made by his man between the sticks.
He also accepted that Celtic’s biggest ever win away to St Johnstone owed everything to Forrest proving unplayable in the first period. He hared past blue shirts like they were cones on a training pitch time and again and after Edouard had made it 2-0 with a big backlift that allowed him to plant a low and true effort in the far corner 22 minutes in, the Scotland winger took ownership of the encounter.
His hat-trick took 22 minutes to complete. A scintillating move started when Edouard found him as he accelerated through the middle of a non-existent backline and was followed by him playing a onetwo with Rogic before stroking the ball into the bottom corner from just inside the box.
That made it 3-0 on the halfhour mark. By the 38th minute he had his third, seizing on a loose ball midway inside the St Johnstone half and striding forward before slotting it under Clark. Seconds before the interval he became the first Celtic player to score four goals in an away match since Maciej Zurawski when Rogic released him on the run and he tucked the ball away without breaking stride.
Fears over what further damage might be inflicted on a bedraggled Perth side would only intensify when Danny Swanson, pictured, brutally wiped out Forrest to earn a straight red only three minutes into the second period. The surprise was that it took Celtic until the 85th minute to add a sixth, Callum Mcgregor guiding in from a Mikael Lustig cut-back. Well, that was one of two surprises, with the other being that it wasn’t Forrest flashing the effort into the net.