Celtic’s form in recent times has been shaky at best. They have won just two of their previous six games across all competitions. And both of them have been narrow ones. Callum McGregor had to take a red card for the team in order to prevent Motherwell from going through on goal in the previous league game. On the other hand, the Hoops had to rely on an own goal and a 95th minute strike from Giorgos Giakoumakis against St Johnstone.
A win is a win though and Celtic must have been relieved to come out of Perth with all three points and their spot at the top of the table in tact.
It had not looked like it was heading in that direction when St Johnstone managed to find an equaliser in the 93rd minute of the game. If the Hoops had dropped points, it would have opened up the gate for the Rangers to get level.
Naturally, their fans were not delighted when Celtic did manage to grind out a winner through Giakoumakis deep into stoppage time and they let their displeasure be known on Twitter:
Ref playing 100 minutes and a foul on the keeper
— ClydebankBear72 (@ClydebankBear72) October 8, 2022
Another hand by the referee at the end of the game there, free kick and as much stoppage time as you want, talk about being handed games 🤣🤣🤣
— Sean (@broxi18721) October 8, 2022
Luck will always run out at some point, as we saw with the celebrations as if the league was won today, knowing they had a lucky escape in this game,.
— Eddie Crawford (@seujimy) October 8, 2022
Tide is definitely starting to turn in this title race. Celtic were always gonna fall away eventually with the managers style of play, and Rangers were only gonna get stronger as the season goes on getting players back from injury, team gelling etc. Easy win today Rangers 🇬🇧
— Kerrbear (@Kerrbear1872) October 8, 2022
Rangers fans meltdown as Celtic grab victory from the jaws of a draw vs St Johnstone
The complaint about extra time being added makes no sense because five minutes of injury time were added when Celtic were leading by 1-0.
Thus, it actually worked against Celtic than in their favour. On the other hand, Giakoumakis scored in the 95th of the game itself, and that’s also overlooking the fact that St Johnstone did score in injury time.
The only thing that does make sense is that Celtic cannot rely on getting wins in this fashion every week. At the same time though, it is important to recognise that they are going through a rough patch at the moment and what is most important now is points, which they have gotten in the previous two games despite not being at their best.