Late McGregor goal keeps unbeaten streak intact against a stubborn Saints side.
Celtic needed a late strike from substitute Callum McGregor to salvage a point at home to St. Johnstone. The Saints took the lead through Steven MacLean after a calamitous piece of goalkeeping from Craig Gordon.
The Scotland number 1 had a moment to forget when his halfhearted clearance fell into the path of MacLean who stuck it away without hesitation. The Celtic players as well as the Parkhead crowd were stunned into silence as they were sure that MacLean was offside, the assistant referee however was unnerved as he waved the goal on sending the Saints striker off celebrating.
The Celts dominated the second period bringing on Jonny Hayes and Stuart Armstrong for the fruitless James Forrest and Olivier Ntcham. Wave after wave of Celtic attack was interrupted by the odd scare from St.Johnstone who with one particular effort from Steven MacLean could and probably should have doubled the Saints lead.
59. MacLean should score from a header after a Easton cross, but Gordon's legs saves Saints from going two ahead. 0-1. #SJFClive
— St. Johnstone FC (@StJohnstone) August 26, 2017
The breakthrough finally came with ten minutes remaining when McGregor latched on to a fortunate bounce off defender Steven Anderson to slam the ball home for the Celts and keep the unbeaten streak alive.
Here are three things we have learned from this game.
We cannot afford to become complaisant
It may have just been an off day for the hoops where accuracy is concerned because they did truly dominate the match stats having 31 shots at goal with 11 on target. That being said however, those games will occur throughout the season. We cannot afford to be lackadaisical in defense and rely on our routinely ruthless strikers to bail us out. This was exhibited today in Craig Gordon’s lazy attempt at a clearance which saw the Saints go 1 up leaving the usually dependable goalkeeper red faced.
McGregor can handle the pressure
Like he showed last year at Hampden against Rangers, Callum McGregor can be the man to come up with a goal when the hoops are in desperate need. McGregor has been in good form at the start of this season scoring two goals already against Hearts and Kilmarnock respectively.
McGregor was on target again today as Celtic huffed and puffed but just could not seem to score. After several rattles of the woodwork and some stout defending from goalkeeper Mannus and defender Anderson, McGregor stuck the ball away to claim a point for the bhoys.
I am sure some Celtic fans will be hoping his namesake can do something similarly spectacular in Las Vegas tonight.
St. Johnstone will do OK this year
They may not have got the win but St. Johnstone certainly gave a good account of themselves at Celtic Park this afternoon. Tommy Wright’s men were very disciplined in defense and showed a constant threat on the counter attack which forced Celtic’s defense to be on high alert throughout the ninety minutes.
Next: Reaction from Celtic's Champions League draw
They wont win the league this year but I can see them mounting a very serious European challenge against Aberdeen and Rangers should they keep their form up.