| Match Pictures | Matches: 1997 – 1998 | 1997-98 Pictures |
Trivia
- Larsson was out with a hamstring tweak. Annoni and Hannah continued from the previous game
- Tom O’Neill joined the coaching staff before Christmas with a special remit to work with the Celtic U16 pro-Youth League
Review
The team never really got started in this game, losing to a scrambled George O’Boyle goal – but truthfully, St Johnstone looked the better team more likely to score. Certainly compounding the fact was leaving on an under-performing Regi Blinker and taking off Jackson instead, leaving Brattbakk solely up front.
Wim Jansen post match“
St Johnstone were aggressive and we knew that we would have to match and get on top of that but we simply didn’t do it.
“You can’t score goals when you don’t make chances and that is where we went wrong.”
On Regi Blinker,
“You win as a team and you lose as a team. It is not about one player. We had many that didn’t perform at Perth.”
Teams
St Johnstone:
Main, McCluskey, Davidson, Dasovic, Weir, Kernaghan, Scott, O’Neil, Kane, O’Boyle (Grant ,74 ), Preston
Subs not used: Griffin, Wright,
Celtic:
Gould ; Boyd , Hannah , McNamara , Annoni, Stubbs (Thom ,82 ), Jackson (Brattbakk ,63 ), Burley , Wieghorst , Lambert, Blinker
Subs not used: Donnelly ,
Bookings: Weir (St Johnstone) McNamara, Stubbs (Celtic)
Referee: S Roy (Aberdeen)
Attendance: 10,554
Articles
- Match Report (see below)
Pictures
Stats
| St Johnstone | Celtic | |
| Bookings | 1 | 2 |
| Fouls | 14 | 12 |
| Shots on target | 7 | 6 |
| Corners | 8 | 9 |
| Offside | 6 | 3 |
St Johnstone 1 Celtic 0
THERE’S none so blind as those who cannot see. Wim Jansen’s blinkered attitude to his team selection contributed heavily to the downfall of Celtic. Now they have taken their eye off the ball at a vital time in the title contest.
Such a tight race leaves no room for passengers, but the Celtic coach’s stubborn resistance in relying upon his countryman Regi Blinker left Rangers’ principal challengers short-handed and handicapped as they slid to defeat. Celtic Park will now host an Old Firm derby on Friday which sees the champions arrive with a handy four-point cushion.
Jansen’s futile defence of Blinker, leaving the out-of-touch Dutchman on when introducing Harald Brattbakk in the 61st minute, proved costly. Instead, the Celtic coach withdrew Darren Jackson, to a hail of jeers from astonished supporters and some dark looks from Jackson himself, leaving new signing Brattbakk to forage alone up front or in tandem with Jackie McNamara, who was press-ganged into becoming an auxiliary attacker.
Blinker dropped deeper, ostensibly to help his defence, but he was of little use when George O’Boyle forced home the crucial 72nd-minute goal which divided the teams.
On this occasion, the gift of sight was truly valuable. Fortunately for St Johnstone fans, referee Sandy Roy is possessed of a keener eye than Jansen. He had no problem cutting through the camouflage and awarding O’Boyle’s goal when Celtic claimed furiously that the ball had not crossed the line. Television replays later proved the little Northern Ireland striker’s stab effort in connecting with Allan Preston’s corner was legal, being pushed back out of the Celtic goal by McNamara’s hand.
Brattbakk thought he had matched O’Boyle in injury time during a frantic scramble when first Saints goalkeeper Alan Main blocked the Norwegian striker’s shot with his feet and then Philip Scott thumped Brattbakk’s follow-up off the line.
However, even someone as prolific as Brattbakk needs help when easing into a side after just a few weeks at his new club, and the job would have been performed much easier with Jackson in tandem, rather than the Scotland international sitting cooling his heels in the dug-out.
Jansen, though, is reluctant to change either his 4-4-2 system or Blinker. He said he did not consider withdrawing a midfielder and using a three-man attack in pursuit of victory. “We wanted to play the game as normal and we knew that Alan Stubbs was struggling, so I did not want to take off anyone else.”
Jansen stoutly defended Blinker, who is fast becoming a sore point with Celtic followers. “You do not lose the game because of one player. Too many players were not really in the game today. We did not take our chances and St Johnstone’s aggressive approach did not allow us to play our passing game.”
However, Jansen must fast be approaching the point of no return in maintaining such faith in the unrewarding Blinker. That point should be on Friday against Rangers, if he has any sense.
Celtic’s deficiencies though are a poor distraction for the admirable way in which St Johnstone set about this game. Despite losing the preceding three games to Celtic this season, Paul Sturrock’s side showed plenty of ambition as they stretched the Celtic defence, particularly in the first half.
Most impressive were full-back Callum Davidson who was denied a goal only by the acrobatic Celtic goalkeeper Jonathan Gould, and striker O’Boyle. The striker was marked by Enrico Annoni, the shaven-headed pair looking like a couple of bookends. The Celtic defender could rarely maintain such proximity to O’Boyle during the match.
O’Boyle produced a dangerous right-foot shot which Gould saved as early as the fifth minute and then, nine minutes later, should have created the opener for St Johnstone after his pace left Annoni stumbling and floundering. However, Gould who had been drawn off his line, rescued Celtic by intercepting O’Boyle’s intended cut-back for Preston.
Gould, not for the first time this season, produced a string of excellent saves. The best of these came in the 34th minute when he sprang to his left to superbly turn over Davidson’s vicious 30-yard drive which was bound for the top corner of the net. At the other end, Main performed similar heroics when arching backwards to stop a header from McNamara creeping in.
The pattern of the game changed little in the second half and, in the 56th minute, Gould again proved an impenetrable barrier to deny O’Boyle, after the striker swivelled and shot on the turn.
O’Boyle though was not to be denied in the 73rd minute. He explained later: “When Allan’s corner came over I just stretched out my foot and it was definitely over the line, although I saw a hand – I don’t know if it was McNamara’s or David Hannah’s – scoop it back off the line.”
“I thought we were more up for the game than Celtic. We stopped them from playing. I don’t think Celtic will be happy if they play like that on Friday. They will need a big improvement to beat Rangers.”