A milestone goal from a summer arrival kept Celtic’s perfect league start intact at McDiarmid Park, even if the performance was more workmanlike than the scoreline suggests.
St Johnstone 0 Celtic 1 – and it was Mika Baur who got his name on the scoresheet for the first time in Hoops colours, slotting home the only goal of the game as Martin O’Neill’s side made it six wins from six in the William Hill Premiership. It’s the club’s 13th consecutive victory in all competitions stretching back to the tail end of last season, and it stretched Celtic’s advantage over second-placed Rangers to five points, according to Belfast Telegraph.
Rotation Ahead of Rangers
O’Neill made five changes from the side that beat St Mirren 2-1 the previous Saturday, with debutant goalkeeper Sam Johnstone handed his first start and on-loan Parma midfielder Oliver Sorensen also getting a first taste from kick-off. Dane Murray, Kasper Hogh and Sebastian Tounekti were all brought in too, while Camilo Duran, Benjamin Nygren and Kieran Tierney started on the bench.
Cameron Carter-Vickers was given the evening off entirely due to stiffness. It’s the sort of squad management that only makes sense with Sunday’s Old Firm collision away to theRangers in the Premier Sports Cup looming, and there’s more on how that squad has taken shape in our earlier look at Celtic’s evolving first-team group.
How Baur Got His Goal
It wasn’t all one-way traffic at McDiarmid Park. Sam Johnstone had to be at his best in the 19th minute, somehow pushing over a Joel Cotterill effort that looked destined for the net after Enes Alic’s low cross, and Cheick Diabate did brilliantly to snuff out a clear run on goal for Haissem Hassan in the first half.
The breakthrough came four minutes into the second half. Tounekti’s cross was helped on by Hogh into Hassan’s path on the right of the box, and his low ball across goal was finished from close range by Baur. Hassan thought he’d doubled the lead soon after, only for it to be ruled out as the ball had already gone out of play, while Toby Steward denied both James Forrest and Hogh late on to keep it to a single goal. Far from Celtic’s most fluent night, but a job done – and there’s context on the officiating at the venue in our recent piece on Celtic’s fixtures at McDiarmid Park.
Five Clear and Rangers Twice in a Row
The bigger picture is simple enough: six league wins out of six, thirteen in a row overall, and daylight opening up at the top of the table. Celtic now face Rangers twice in quick succession – first in the cup on Sunday, then again in the league a week later – and results like this, however unspectacular, are exactly what keeps the pressure squarely on Ibrox.
| Fixture | Competition | Result/Status |
|---|---|---|
| St Mirren (a) | Premiership | Won 2-1 |
| St Johnstone (a) | Premiership | Won 1-0 |
| Rangers (a) | Premier Sports Cup | Sunday, upcoming |
| Rangers (a) | Premiership | Week on Sunday, upcoming |
As for Baur himself, this was his first goal since arriving at Celtic in the summer – a tidy, close-range finish that will matter far more for what it represents than how it looked. There’s fuller background on the move that brought him to Parkhead in our earlier coverage of his summer signing. Mon The Hoops.
