2011-08-28: St Mirren 0-2 Celtic, SPL

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Trivia

• Celtic remain one pt behind Rangers who won 2-0 v Aberdeen.
• Celtic out of Europe after bad 3-1 loss a few days earlier to FC Sion. Celtic may get back into Europe as FC Sion fielded ineligible players but not yet sorted out.

Review

First ten mins great, then hopeless! Amazing St Mirren didn't score and get back into the game. The Europe malaise seems to carry onto the domestic stuff for us.

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St Mirren 0 – 2 Celtic: Slick start by visitors undoes spirited Saints

Published Date: 29 August 2011
By Martin Hannan
at St Mirren Park
A LACKADAISICAL start by St Mirren cost them three points, as Celtic took full advantage to record their fifth successive away win in the SPL.
For all those who criticise the Scottish game, it should be said that this was a highly entertaining match full of good football, for which much of the praise must go to St Mirren, who did not collapse after their dreadful start. Rather, they got their tails up and showed the disappointingly small 6,223 crowd what they could do.

Celtic could, and perhaps should, have been five up after 12 minutes, such was the alacrity they showed in attacking from the kick-off.

Anthony Stokes was through on goal after just 75 seconds of play, but hit his shot wide. He had the ball in the net a minute later but was penalised for a foul on Marc McAusland. Video showed that referee Willie Collum had called it wrong, the jostling being of the 50-50 variety.

Stokes played his part in Celtic's opener, picking up a pass inside from Gary Hooper and returning it with interest into the St Mirren box, where Hooper steadied himself and slammed the ball low past Craig Samson.

There were just six minutes on the clock and such an early goal steadied Celtic's nerves but shredded those of St Mirren.

How else to explain an error by Paul McGowan, formerly of Celtic, who misdirected an overhit pass by David van Zanten, another former Celt, straight to Hooper, who needed no second invitation to run away and score after 12 minutes.

Since Daniel Majstorovic had missed a sitter, heading over a Charlie Mulgrew free kick from six yards when unmarked, Celtic could indeed have had five before St Mirren had even forced a shot at goal.

That duly arrived in the 16th minute, when the excellent Nigel Hasselbaink played an adept through ball to McGowan, whose fierce shot was deflected wide by Fraser Forster, the big goalkeeper standing tall and narrowing the angle in textbook fashion.

However, he could do nothing about Lee Mair's header off a McGowan volley two minutes later which the Celtic fans behind the goal were glad to see settle among them, rather than in the net.

At this point, Celtic were playing some lovely one-touch football with dummies and feints thrown in, and Cha Du Ri's runs down the right were a feature in attack, but the home side had definitely woken up and they began to play some impressive football.

Danny Lennon's side have been a revelation with their passing play this season, and despite the obvious drawback of being two goals behind, they continued with their game plan and great credit to them for that.

Celtic knew a third goal would finish the match, however, and first of all Hooper headed wide before James Forrest, who was looking lively down the left wing, fired in a long-range effort that went wide.

From the midway point of the half, St Mirren gradually pinned Celtic back, pressing upfield yet never creating gilt-edged chances.

After 33 minutes, following yet more good play by Hasselbaink and the impressive Jeroen Tesselaar, Steven Thompson had a goalbound effort blocked inadvertently by colleague McGowan, before Hasselbaink very nearly connected with a Tesselaar cross for what would have been a certain goal.

Hasselbaink was giving Mastorovic nightmares, and Celtic had barely created an opportunity worthy of the name for much of the latter part of the half, but they emerged into the swirling breeze for the second half determined to blow away the Saints, just as they had done in the first period.

Stokes was allowed to run unchecked into the St Mirren box and only an outstanding one-handed save by Samson stopped the Celtic forward from scoring.

At the other end, Tesselaar's powerful free kick was saved low at his near post by Forster, before Stokes was allowed another run, Samson saving St Mirren again.

By now we had a marvellously open game of end-to-end football, and had Kelvin Wilson's header back to Forster gone the other side of the post for what would have been a ludicrous own-goal, we might have seen Saints mount even more attacks than they did.

Yet Celtic knew they had the two-goal lead in the bag, and were content to defend deeply so that for all the prettiness of St Mirren's play, there was only rarely any serious penetration into the visitors' area.

Beram Kayal, Wilson and Majstorovic could count themselves lucky that referee Collum was in generous mood as all three committed bookable offences, and that was perhaps a sign of the pressure St Mirren were exerting.

Steven Thomson's cross to Steven Thompson should have been turned into the net by the striker, and Thompson should also have done better than head the ball straight at Forster after 73 minutes. Yet the emphasis changed in the closing minutes, as Celtic broke from defence on several occasions and had chances for a third, Samson saving from Ki Sung Yeung and then pulling off a real point-blank save to deny Forrest.

In the end, no-one could have begrudged St Mirren a share of the points if the match had started in the 13th minute.

Unfortunately for the Paisley side, they had already thrown in at away by that point.

St Mirren: Samson, van Zanten, Mair, Goodwin (McLean 89) Thomson, Thompson, McGowan, Hasslebaink (McKee 79) McAusland, Teale (McShane 70); Tesselaar. Subs not used: Carey, Haddad, Kennedy, Smith.

Celtic: Forster, Cha, Majstorovic, Kelvin Wilson, Mulgrew, Brown, Ki (Ledley 86), Kayal, Forrest, Hooper, Stokes. Subs not used: Zaluska, Matthews, Wanyama, Samaras, Maloney, Commons.

Page last updated at 14:03 GMT, Sunday, 28 August 2011 15:03 UK
Celtic enjoyed their first win in four outings thanks to a Gary Hooper double at St Mirren Park.
The striker opened the scoring in Paisley in the sixth minute after being set up by strike partner Anthony Stokes.
Six minutes later a mistake by former Celtic player Paul McGowan allowed Hooper to slip a second past St Mirren goalkeeper Craig Samson.
The result moves Celtic to within a point of Rangers and Motherwell.
Manager Neil Lennon made two changes to the side who were knocked out of the Europa League on Thursday, with Stokes and midfielder James Forrest replacing Joe Ledley and Georgios Samaras, who dropped to the bench.
And Stokes appeared to have opened the scoring when he hit the back of the net in the early stages, but referee William Collum judged him to have fouled Saints defender Marc McAusland beforehand.
Celtic's breakthrough came just seconds later when Stokes and Hooper worked a one-two at the edge of the box to allow Hooper to drill the ball past Samson.
And things were to get worse for the St Mirren defence when a catalogue of mistakes in the 12th minute, culminating in McGowan passing straight to Hooper's feet, allowed the Englishman to run through and slip the ball into the St Mirren net. Hooper's brace gave Celtic their first win in four matches But after a poor start, the Paisley side began to show flashes of the brand of football manager Danny Lennon has established in the early part of the season.
And McGowan had the chance to make amends soon after his error when Nigel Hasselbaink provided a fine pass, but his effort from 16 yards was saved by Forster.
Hasselbaink continued to cause problems for Celtic defender Daniel Majstorovic, with Dutchman Jeroen Tesselaar also threatening to create an opening for the home side as St Mirren increased the pressure towards the end of the first half.
After the restart, it was Stokes who again looked dangerous, going on a solo run and sending in a low drive to force a terrific save from Samson.
But there were chances for St Mirren too, Tesselaar whipping a free kick round Celtic's wall in the 55th minute; Forster forced to make a scrambling save by his near post.
The impressive Tesselaar also did his share at the other end of the park, denying Scott Brown a close-range chance seconds later.
Celtic's Kelvin Wilson looked more jittery in front of goal and endured a heart-stopping moment as he sent a defensive header just inches past his own goal in the 66th minute.
That fell at the end of a period of sustained pressure for St Mirren, who but for a poor start may have expected more from the game.
But in the later stages it was Celtic who looked more likely to add to their advantage, the removal of Gary Teale in the 71st minute restricting St Mirren's creativity in midfield.
Ki Seung-Yeung came close in the 78th minute when he found himself one-on-one with Samson inside the box, his low shot blocked by the St Mirren keeper's legs.
Forrest also came close with two minutes remaining when he was played in by Charlie Mulgrew but the winger was denied by Samson who delivered another great save at his near post.