Mikey Johnston scores his first Celtic goals in four years in victory at Dundee
Paulo Bernardo and Mikey Johnston were the unlikely goal heroes for Celtic at Dundee but Cameron Carter-Vickers was at the centre of an injury concern before the visit by Rangers to Parkhead on Saturday.
Bernardo poked home the 52nd-minute opener at Dens Park to score his first goal for Celtic and Johnston, on as a substitute, struck his first two goals for the Hoops since December 2019 to seal a 3-0 win.
The sight of the influential centreback Carter-Vickers walking off with the physio shortly after the opening goal dampened the Celtic fans’ Boxing Day celebrations. Their manager remains hopeful the 25-year-old will brush off his injury concern in time for the Old Firm game. The influential defender missed two and a half games with a hamstring complaint this month and Celtic fans will hope the latest issue does not lead to a similar outcome.
“He’s hopefully OK,” Rodgers said. “He felt a bit of tightness and we had said to him before that he didn’t need to be a hero. If he felt anything, just come off. We’re hoping he’s OK but we’ll find out in the next couple of days.”
This was Celtic’s seventh consecutive away game in the first fixture after Christmas Day and it produced a seventh win to ensure Celtic will go into the derby top of the Premiership. The champions lead by five points but Rangers have two games in hand including their Ibrox match against Ross County on Wednesday.
Rodgers named the same team that started on Saturday in the 2-0 victory against Livingston, while Dundee had Cammy Kerr in for the absent Ricki Lamie and Zak Rudden returned as one of two strikers.
Celtic quickly took control without carving Dundee open. Kyogo Furuhashi headed into Trevor Carson’s hands and Luis Palma shot over from a decent chance. However, Dundee also had their moments – Lyall Cameron fired a ball across the face of goal after great footwork and Rudden’s looping header was saved by Joe Hart.
The visitors began to create better chances after the first quarter. Liam Scales headed just wide from Palma’s corner and Matt O’Riley created a chance for himself but shot straight at Carson.
For all Celtic’s possession, it was a loose ball from a Dundee throw-in that led to the visitors’ best chance of the half. O’Riley played the ball forward and Furuhashi was clean through. The Japan striker dinked the ball over Carson with his right foot but the ball drifted just wide.
O’Riley and Bernardo were then off target from half-chances and Callum McGregor saw a shot blocked before setting up Palma for a free header that the Honduran sent wide.
The domination continued after the break as Furuhashi sent a weak shot wide and Bernardo headed over before making the breakthrough.
Dundee were on the back foot after Rudden was flagged offside and Palma threaded the ball through for Bernardo’s run. The on-loan Benfica midfielder stretched to get a toe on the ball and it bobbled through Carson’s legs.
Stephen Welsh replaced Carter-Vickers but it was Johnston who sealed the victory. The winger cut in from the left in the 83rd minute and fired a 22-yard strike which Carson could only help into the net.
Carson saved from Oh Hyeon-gyu and Bernardo before Johnston played a one-two with O’Riley and drilled into the bottom corner from 16 yards in stoppage time. The Republic of Ireland international was not far away from his hat-trick when he curled wide in the closing seconds.
Celtic had 37 shots at goal and 23 corners but the Dundee manager, Tony Docherty, felt his side had been disciplined in the first half.
“It was important that we kept that defensive structure but I just felt they had a couple of chances just before that, making those trademark Celtic runs down the side, and they get their goal,” he said. “I thought it was really fortunate. But once they get that first goal, then you see Celtic and the quality they bring off the bench. They are a real quality team.”