Dennis is a menace to sad Celts in Saints’ historic win
One small statistic said it all about the historical weight of Saints’ victory here.
Of the 11 players who lined up at kick-off, not even one had been born when the Paisley club last won at Celtic Park.
That happened 31 years ago on April 7 1990.
Then, Icelander Gunni Torfason, George Shaw and Paul Lambert, later to be a Champions League winner, all got on the scoresheet in a 3-0 victory that had the Hoops fans howling their protests in the stands.
Yesterday, with the coronavirus pandemic keeping the supporters locked out the angry shouts were from Neil Lennon.
The Irishman, who at the end of the week learned that his boss, Peter Lawwell, the Hoops chief executive, was retiring in the summer, was a study in frustration as he prowled the edge of his technical area shouting at his players.
Instead it was his countryman, Jim Goodwin, who was left smiling at the end of a terrific result.
Saints, 5-1 winners against Dundee United in midweek, were good value for their success and wasted little time making the breakthrough.
Dylan Connelly teed up Kris Dennis inside the box and the 30-year-old Englishman smashed home for 1-0.
“We didn’t come here fearing Celtic,” he said. “They’re not in the best situation at the minute so we came here looking to get a result and it’s great that we managed to do that.
“We did a lot of work on Friday on how we were going to set up.
“The gaffer decided to go with three at the back with Kyle Mcallister playing off me and it worked a treat.
“With my goal, when the ball got played to me I just thought to myself ‘take a touch,’ and the ball fell perfectly for me.
“I just had to hit the target and back myself to score in the situation.
“We now want to crack on – we’ll celebrate this a little bit tonight then it’s back at it for the next game which is Hibs on Tuesday.”
Celtic were stunned by the concession of the goal but bounced back thanks to some smart work from their skipper.
Callum Mcgregor it was who skipped past Cammy Mcpherson down the left. He cut the ball back sharply to Odsonne Edouard who shot low into the far corner.
Saints, highly impressive throughout, merely regrouped and went ahead again.
Kyle Mcallister swung a cross in and Ilkay Durmus showed great skill to stick up his right foot and take it down, a piece of trickery that left Shane Duffy flummoxed.
With the Irishman turned round on himself and Bain scrambling to shut down the space, the Turk coolly clipped a left foot shot into the net.
Celtic, almost inevitably given the progress of the game, made changes at the interval.
Off went Leigh Griffiths and Nir Bitton, who had picked up a knock, and on came Tom Rogic and Stephen Welsh.
It made little appreciable difference. As before the interval, the Hoops had plenty of the ball and, again as before, they looked vulnerable to counter attacks with Mcallister going close to adding a third.
Lennon rolled the dice again when hooking Elyounoussi and Soro for Ryan Christie and Albian Ajeti.
Perhaps by weight of volume, both of subs and shouts from the touchline, Celtic seemed to grasp the urgency of their situation.
However, while Jim Goodwin had keeper Jak Alnwick to thank for a great stop from Duffy late on, his side were largely untroubled.
“Overall I just thought it was a fantastic collective effort,” he said.
“I don’t think it was a case of Celtic not being at it. I wouldn’t say they weren’t trying. You could see they were desperate to get on the ball and make things happen.
“My players deserve all the credit. Sometimes it’s all about how bad Celtic or Rangers are after these results and the opposition don’t get the credit they deserve.”