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John Guidetti grabbed a double to secure Celtic a narrow 2-1 win over second bottom St Mirren in a scrappy Scottish Premiership encounter at New St Mirren Park yesterday. |
Thomas Reilly came close to marking his first start in over a year for St Mirren with a goal when his 30-yard effort hit the bar early on.
However, it was Celtic who grabbed the opener in the 42nd minute when Guidetti bundled a Scott Brown pass over the line under pressure from Jim Goodwin and keeper Marian Kello.
St Mirren were back on level terms four minutes after the break when a howler from Celtic stopper Craig Gordon allowed Kenny McLean to fire home an equaliser, the Buddies’ first goal at home this season.
The home side’s joy was short-lived as Swedish striker Guidetti grabbed his third goal in two games to restore Celtic’s advantage in the 63rd minute and spare his keeper’s blushes.
The win is their first away from home since the opening day of the campaign and means the Hoops have won back-to-back games for only the second time this season.
Celtic manager Ronny Deila wasn’t happy with his side’s performance. “I’m not very pleased with the performance but we won in the end and that’s good,” the Norwegian said.
“There were some positive things but there were some things that just weren’t good enough today.”
St Mirren manager Tommy Craig felt his side deserved more from the game. “I think over the piece if we had picked up a point it would have been just rewards
“They worked tremendously hard, played some good football at times and at times matched Celtic in terms of strength and power and I was disappointed to come away with nothing.”
After chopping and changing his side for most of the season, Celtic boss Ronny Deila made just two changes with Mubarak Wakaso and Eoghan O’Connell replacing the injured Kris Commons and Jason Denayer.
A lot of the early pressure came from Celtic but it was Reilly, on a rare start for St Mirren, who came closest to breaking the deadlock in the fourth minute. The midfielder, who hadn’t started for the Buddies since the opening day of last season, let fly with a right foot dipping shot from 30 yards that cannoned off the crossbar.
Chances were few and far between in a scrappy first half but Stokes wasn’t far away when he cut in from the left and tried his luck with a curling shot that bounced just wide of the post.
It looked like the first half was going to end goalless before Celtic made the breakthrough with a scruffy goal in the 42nd minute.
Emilio Izaguirre released Scott Brown who got in behind the St Mirren defence to square the ball into the six-yard box where Guidetti slid in under pressure from Goodwin to knock the ball in off the keeper.
A mistake from Gordon allowed St Mirren to haul themselves level in the 49th minute. The keeper’s terrible throw out went straight to Sean Kelly who rolled a pass to John McGinn.
His drilled cross into the box was met by Jason Naismith who saw his shot saved by Gordon but the keeper could do nothing to prevent McLean firing the rebound past him into the net.
Celtic upped the tempo and Callum McGregor saw his effort deflected over before Marian Kello comfortably dealt with a raking shot from Stokes.
On-loan Manchester City striker Guidetti restored Celtic’s advantage in the 63rd minute. Deila’s decision to move Stokes in from the left to a more central role soon paid off as the Irish striker slipped a superb pass through to Guidetti who drilled a low shot through the legs of Kello.
The Swede’s dreams of a hat-trick were scuppered moments later when he came off with a knock to be replaced by fellow forward Stefan Scepovic.
Celtic were inches away from adding another in the 76th minute when Dutch defender Virgil van Dijk sent a sizzling free-kick just over.
