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Celtic v St Mirren – Saints stand in the way of Sweet Sixteen Point Gap

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CELTIC return to a sold out Celtic Park this afternoon as the Hoops look for the first of six wins that would see a ninth successive title won.

Today’s visitors St Mirren have had a steady if unspectacular season but there is definite improvement in league position and resilience in comparison to last season’s great escape from relegation.

On Wednesday as the Celts were grabbing a point in a bruising 2-2 draw with Livingston to go 13 points clear at the summit, The Saints cut the gap on ninth placed Ross County to three points after a goalless draw. They’ll be looking for some assistance from ‘the’ Rangers then when County entertain the Ibrox club on Sunday. Though the recent form of our rivals may well mean Jim Goodwin’s side will be less confident than they would normally of their nearest league rivals tasting defeat.

This season the Saints have become a well drilled defensive outfit. They aren’t a side who tend to lose heavily and recent results back that up, as do recent performances against Celtic.

The Buddies have only lost two of their last eight league matches since last facing Celtic. There have been two wins against Kilmarnock (1-0) and Motherwell (2-1), draws with Aberdeen (0-0), Hibernian (2-2), Hamilton (1-1) and St Johnstone (0-0), while the two defeats have come against Rangers (0-1) and Livingston (1-2). They are certainly not a side in poor form.

Today’s match of course will be the final meeting of the teams this season. As the league splits the Saints will battle it out with the rest of the bottom six while Celtic will be looking to claim that 9 in a row title with the five other best placed teams.

Celtic have come out on top in the previous two fixtures this season winning 2-0 at Celtic Park in October with second half goals from Elyounoussi and Forrest seeing the Celts claim three points. The Saints however were a tough nut to crack and I’d expect more of the same today.

In the second fixture on Boxing Day at The Simple Digital Arena, Celtic had another hard work encounter with Cammy MacPherson pulling a late goal back when Celtic were two goals to the good. The 2- 1 win ended with a little more nervousness for the Celtic support than expected after McGregor and Forrest first half goals appeared to have the Hoops on easy street.

A professional performance with nothing taken for granted should see Celtic prevail but the support may have to be patient given the stuffy nature of St Mirren’s men behind the ball approach. St Mirren haven’t beaten Celtic since the 2013 League Cup semi-final and the last time The Saints beat Celtic in a league encounter was 10 years ago when a 4-0 win for the Buddies ended Tony Mowbray’s reign as Celtic manager.

To find the last St Mirren win at Celtic Park you’d have to go back an amazing 30 years and a game I was unfortunate enough to witness. That day Saints, managed by Tony Fitzpatrick, defeated Celtic 3-0 thanks to goals from Guni Torfason, Geordie Shaw and Paul Lambert.

Speaking to the St Mirren Club website Jim Goodwin didn’t sound like the cautious approach was likely to change for Saturday:

“You’ll always get opportunities and the important thing is that when those opportunities come along that we are clinical and take them.

“Teams have gone there in the past and got shock results and we have to believe that we are capable of doing the same tomorrow.

“We need to believe. If we can take away a point then fantastic, if we can take away all three then that would be out of this world really.

“The fact of the matter is they have only lost one league game at Celtic Park all season so we are well aware of how difficult it is going to be.”

He also advised Gary MacKenzie, Kyle Magennis, Stephen McGinn and Ryan Flynn all remain sidelined for the Buddies but their creative force Kyle McAllister should be available despite picking up a knock against St Johnstone.

For Celtic it is looking like the business end to the season will see a full squad to choose from and that’s very welcome with the injury record we’ve had throughout the season. In yesterday’s press conference Lennon seemed to have to deal with more questions on the Coronavirus than he did on the game itself.

He did sound in confident mood and will know three points today will set up Celtic for a free week and an opportunity to spend some time with the squad to prepare fully for next Sunday’s visit to Ibrox for the last Glasgow Derby before the split. Our rivals on the other hand will have a tough Thursday night European encounter against Bayer Leverkusen to negotiate. That could be a massive advantage for the Celts.

The one fly in the ointment is the fact Olivier Ntcham won’t be fit enough to return to fist team action today. The Frenchman is absent again from Celtic’s squad but Lennon expects him to return to training from a calf injury next week. Whether he’ll be fit enough to take his place at Ibrox remains to be seen. A 30 minute run out against the Saints would certainly have been beneficial.

Speaking on the St Mirren game Lennon had this to say to The Celtic View:

“I think Jim’s improved them,” said Neil Lennon. “He’s been going 4-4-2 of late. Whether he goes like that tomorrow, I don’t know, but we’re concentrating on our own run at the minute.

“I’m expecting St Mirren to be difficult to break down at times but I’m hoping we can do that. I want a front-foot performance from us and for us to play aggressively. We were aggressive on Wednesday night and I thought we played very well and deserved better out of the game.”

Neil Lennon also picked up the award for manager of the month for February and was quick to pass the praise on to the players:

“It’s a measure of the good month we’ve had and that’s down to the players really,” said the Hoops manager. “They’ve been magnificent and really consistent, so it’s for them for their performances more than anything I’ve done. While it’s great, we still have a bit of work to do. We’re in a good place at the minute and we just want to keep the run going for as long as we can.

“They’ve been playing superbly and are in a semi-final as well so we have that to look forward to. Our league form has been fantastic and on Wednesday night that was the first two points we’ve dropped since the turn of the year.”

There’s no doubt today’s opponent will be tough to break down and after Hamilton’s shock result at Ibrox on Wednesday night we can’t let complacency set in.

We may have to be patient today but we have the creativity to win this with a couple of goals to spare. That would send a sold out Celtic Park home happy ahead of next week’s Derby encounter.

Niall J

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As a Bellshill Bhoy I was taken to my first Celtic game in the summer of 1987. It was Billy McNeill’s return to Celtic Park as manager and Celtic lost 5-1 to Arsenal . I thought I was a jinx, I think my Grandfather might have thought the same. It was the finest gift anyone ever gave me when he walked me through Parkhead's gates.

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