CELTIC eventually got the goals at the start of the second half to breach the Paisley side’s solid defence. Jim Goodwin’s side set up with nine of their ten outfield players committed to denying space to Celtic on the final third and blocking any goal-bound effort by throwing bodies at anything threatening.
Callum McGregor found himself in an excellent position to open the scoring in the opening minute but his low shot was well saved. Having survived that early scare St Mirren shut up shop big-time and in doing so frustrated the home side and the support, perhaps around 40,000 strong.
Christopher Jullien scored the one that really mattered against Lazio so we can’t complain too much. He will however need to remind his teammates about that Europa League winner when they pull his leg about the two sitters he missed this evening, one in each half.
James Forrest got his new contract today, he hammered a shot against the post before the interval and might have heard the Green Brigade’s response to The Celtic Star’s challenge to give him a song.
He added a goal and a Man of the Match award before the night was out, contract, song, goal and Man of the Match – not a bad day for the Celtic legend.
The news at half-time from Dingwall was grim and the lead at the top of the table was looking a lot less secure than it did at 7.45pm.
But Odsonne Edouard found space at the left of the box and smashed his shot off the post. Ryan Christie failed to convert the rebound, somewhat embarrassingly before it was third time lucky when Elyounoussi- who had an excellent evening – found the net to settle the 9IAR nerves.
James Forrest got his goal shortly afterwards, taking his time inside the packed penalty area before finding the corner of the net.
There were numerous chances to add that two goal lead but nothing was failing for Edouard and a few others could have got a third.
Greg Taylor had a decent debut while Moritz Bauer struggled to make an impact as an attacking right back.
Scott Brown went off carrying an injury and was replaced by Olivier Ntcham. Jonny Hayes and Lewis Morgan got some match time replacing Taylor and Edouard. Hopefully the skipper is fine for Hampden on Saturday evening.
It was a low key win but three points are three points and we’re still top. Bad news though in that Neil Lennon revealed after the game that “Bayo may require surgery, he’s seeing a specialist so if he does need surgery we are looking at maybe six weeks.”
Man of the Match – James Forrest
