| Match Pictures| Matches: 2017 – 2018 |
Trivia
- Another draw, but Celtic played a vastly changed side due to the upcoming Zenit game away and having played only 2-3 days earlier in a major game.
- Callum McGregor made captain for first time, stepping in for Scott Brown. Well deserved and quite a week.
- Brendan Rodgers insisted he had no regrets over fielding a radically changed starting line-up against St Johnstone as Celtic dropped two points at home to the struggling Perth side. Ahead of this week’s trip to face Zenit St Petersburg, Rodgers made seven changes to his side
- Rogic returned for Celtic; Gamboa played for first time in a long time.
- Lot of complaint from Celtic support
- Bitton ruled out for rest of the season with an injury, another centre half injury at Celtic, currently around 3-4 out injured.
- ex-Celt Tony Watt has again been dropped by another club. He has now gone thru around ten clubs and he’s still young. Was rated highly at Celtic early on.
- Nir Bitton expected to be ruled out for the rest of the season. The versatile Israeli international has been told he is likely to face surgery to repair a long-standing knee problem.
- Hearts: Goncalves, has recently departed Tynecastle, told the Edinburgh Evening News on Wednesday that he had left Heart due to alleged racial abuse from the stands.
- Alex McLeish, EBT & ex-Hun manager, announced as Scotland manager. Very contentious, and shows up SFAfor what it is. Many claiming corruption, boys club etc in the light of his EBTs which was cheating and shouldhavecut him out the running.
- Winter Olympics: the UK curling teams (really just Scotland) are doing okay at this stage, both can qualify but neither side doing excellent. Incredibly, one Russian curling team member up on doping charges!Elsewhere, Elsie Christie Scottish speedskater has continued bad luck spell and was cruelly knocked out in a freak collision in her 1500m race.
Review
(MarcoCooper of KDS)
Celtic aren’t the Harlem Globetrotters. It’s not some sports entertainment.
We’re a club – entirely financed by ourselves – that tries (and expects) to compete against Qatar’s wealth fund, Russia gas reserves etc.
If we need to rest players to have them at 100%, so be it.
(fatboab of KDS)
That was dull.
Far too many changes to expect any kind of coherent performance, but the lack of urgency was disappointing. Kouassi was ponderous, Hendry seems only to play in reverse, Miller unfortunately is not even close to being able to fiil in for Tierney, McGregor was his usual awful self after Thursdays improvement, and Edouard looked hopelessly adrift and off the boil. Pass marks only to Ajer and Gamboa.
I still find it odd that, given he has incredible speed, we don’t ask Gamboa to be far more effective in an attacking role.
Rodgers is hopefully learning that some of these “ fringe” players will always be that, and that we need more quality throughout the squad to enable him to chop and change more than half the team and still expect the points.
St Johnstone are a bunch of dirty Hun thugs, and the referee was surely having a laugh.
Teams
Celtic
- 24 de Vries
- 12 Gamboa
- 04 Hendry
- 35 Ajer
- 59 Miller Substituted for Tierney at 79’minutes
- 88 Kouassi
- 42 McGregor
- 67 Musonda
- 18 Rogic Substituted for Forrest at 61’minutes
- 11 Sinclair
- 22 Edouard Substituted for Dembele at 73’minutes
Substitutes
- 05 Simunovic
- 10 Dembele
- 29 Bain
- 49 Forrest
- 55 McInroy
- 56 Ralston
- 63 Tierney
St Johnstone
- 01 Mannus
- 15 Kerr
- 05 Shaughnessy
- 06 Anderson
- 04 Alston Booked at 90mins
- 07 Millar Substituted for Craig at 89’minutes
- 08 Davidson Booked at 76mins
- 10 Wotherspoon Booked at 90mins
- 19 Foster Booked at 45mins Substituted for Tanser at 59’minutes
- 11 Williams Substituted for Willock at 65’minutes
- 09 MacLean
Substitutes
- 3Tanser
- 12Clark
- 17Johnstone
- 20McClean
- 25Kane
- 26Craig
- 28Willock
Attendance: 58,000
Articles
- Match Report (see end of page below)
Pictures
Forum
- Pre-matchhttp://kerrydalestreet.co.uk/topic/11059285/
- Match http://kerrydalestreet.co.uk/topic/11059504/
- Post Match http://kerrydalestreet.co.uk/topic/11059524/
MOTM
- Voting Thread http://kerrydalestreet.co.uk/topic/11059528/
- Result Thread
- Winner –
Stats
Celtic
St Johnstone
Possession
Home61%
Away39%
Shots
Home13
Away5
Shots on Target
Home6
Away0
Corners
Home5
Away7
Fouls
Home11
Away23
Articles
Celtic 0 – 0 St Johnstone: League leaders held at home
Published: 16:56 Sunday 18 February 2018
For only the second time under Brendan Rodgers, Celtic drew a domestic blank at home as they passed up an opportunity to open up a double-digit lead at the top of the Premiership.
The Scottish champions can remain content enough with the nine-point advantage they now have over both Rangers and Aberdeen as they chase down a seventh consecutive title but this was still a frustrating afternoon for Rodgers and his much-altered side.
St Johnstone’s awkward squad rediscovered their resilience to plunder another precious point in the east end of Glasgow, giving themselves extra breathing space in a relegation battle they have been unaccustomed to being sucked into on Tommy Wright’s watch.
It was a fully merited outcome for the Perth side who took full advantage of Celtic’s squad rotation in the middle of their Europa League last 32 tie against Zenit St Petersburg.
As can often be the case in the domestic fixture immediately after a big European night, there was a real flatness in the atmosphere at Celtic Park compared to last Thursday night’s vibrant 1-0 win over Zenit. With seven changes to his starting line-up, there was no attempt by Rodgers to disguise where his priorities lay ahead of the trip to Russia for the second leg this week.
Before Celtic became bogged down in the occasionally attritional fare of an instantly forgettable first half, they were denied a fifth-minute opener which might have set a different tempo to the contest.
Charly Musonda’s well-delivered free-kick from the right picked out Kristoffer Ajer whose powerful close-range header was kept out by a tremendous reaction save by Alan Mannus. It was as threatening as Celtic looked in an opening 45 minutes, during which St Johnstone combined a ferocious work ethic with some decent spells of possession which might easily have provided them with a breakthrough.
Jack Hendry, partnering Ajer at the heart of an unfamiliar Celtic defence which had Cristian Gamboa and Calvin Miller in the full-back roles, had to hack clear in front of his own goal after a weak kick out by Dorus de Vries put the hosts in trouble.
Saints came close to an opener in the 29th minute and David Wotherspoon’s anguished reaction to heading Blair Alston’s fine cross wide of the target indicated just how good an opportunity it was.
As the visitors continued to enjoy plenty of time inside the Celtic half, Richard Foster’s 25-yard shot sailed just over before a dangerous Wotherspoon free-kick across the face of the six-yard box found no takers.
Odsonne Edouard had limited opportunities to make his presence felt up front for Celtic and it was perhaps more in hope than expectation that the young Frenchman drove a free-kick from all of 30 yards wide of Mannus’ right-hand post.
Edouard should have done better at the start of the second half when, after being played in by Scott Sinclair, he hesitated too long and saw his shot deflected tamely into the grasp of Mannus.
The fleet-footed Musonda looked as likely as anyone to find a way through for Celtic and the on-loan Chelsea playmaker was denied on a couple of occasions by Mannus as shots from distance were kept out by the Saints keeper.
Tom Rogic, making his first Celtic appearance after being sidelined for two months by a knee injury, had been well marshalled by Murray Davidson and he was replaced by James Forrest just after the hour mark.
Saints swapped one on-loan midfielder for another, Matty Willock replacing George Williams, and the Manchester United youngster spurned a great chance to break the deadlock when he burst into the Celtic penalty area and, instead of attempting a shot, tried a cutback which was smothered by the home defence.
Mannus made another smart stop to keep out a Sinclair shot at the other end as Celtic, with Moussa Dembele and Kieran Tierney stepping off the bench for the closing stages, tried to up the tempo in pursuit of a winner.
But St Johnstone remained resolute, no-one typifying their doggedness better than 21-year-old Jason Kerr. The central defender was immense throughout and sealed his fine contribution with a brilliantly timed penalty-box challenge on Dembele in the last minute.
BBC
By Andy Campbell
BBC Sport Scotland
-
- 18 Feb
- From the section Scottish Premiership
Celtic were held to a scoreless draw by a dogged St Johnstone side but the Premiership leaders increased their advantage at the top to nine points.
David Wotherspoon headed over as Saints created the better openings in the first half.
Charly Musonda had two efforts saved as Celtic improved after the break.
Scott Sinclair was also denied by St Johnstone goalkeeper Alan Mannus as the Perth side ended a run of three defeats.
Tommy Wright’s team, who drew at Celtic Park for the second time this season, move three points clear of Partick Thistle and four clear of the bottom two places.
Saints could have fallen behind when Kristoffer Ajer headed towards goal at an early Celtic corner, Mannus making the save and Steven Anderson completing the clearance.
Soon after, Mannus’ opposite number Dorus de Vries miscued a clearance and Celtic conceded a corner but the Dutchman put that behind him with a confident claim from the cross.
Saints grew in confidence as they kept the champions, who had made seven changes following Thursday’s win over Zenit St Petersburg, at bay.
And that was evident when Blair Alston crossed for Wotherspoon, who could not keep his header down.
Wotherspoon then laid off a free-kick for Richard Foster to fire over and, at the other end, a set piece shot from Odsonne Edouard drifted wide of the Saints goal.
Celtic were more forceful after the break and Sinclair set up Edouard but his shot deflected high into the air for Mannus to collect.
Mannus was called into action again to turn wide an awkward Musonda shot after the on-loan Chelsea winger had gone on a mazy run.
Another Musonda effort, a free-kick, dipped at a good height for Mannus to beat away.
The returning Tom Rogic as well as Edouard and Calvin Miller were replaced during the second half as first-team regulars James Forrest, Moussa Dembele and Kieran Tierney were sent on to give the hosts more impetus.
Matty Willock came on for Saints debutant George Williams and got in behind the Celtic defence but could not find a team-mate with his cutback.
Sinclair forced Mannus into a save with a volley as Celtic threatened at a corner and the champions could not find a way through.
Brendan Rodgers’ side play their return leg against Zenit in Russia on Thursday.
Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers questions St Johnstone players’ desire
- 1 hour ago
“I think there are questions there for Tommy’s players,” said Rodgers.
St Johnstone are struggling in ninth place in the Premiership, and are eight points off a spot in the top six, where they have finished for each of the last six seasons.
Rodgers suggested Wright’s men are cheating their manager by not showing the same desire against other sides as they do against the Old Firm.
He said: “Tommy’s a fantastic manager, I am sure he walks away happy with a point but probably really frustrated.
“How can you win a game 3-1 at Ibrox on 16 December, not win a game right the way through [since], apart from the Albion game, then your next big result is away at Celtic?
“So I think the question goes with the St Johnstone players.
“Today you’ve seen them organised, committed, fighting, running – doing all of that.
“If they do that in every game they would probably win a lot more games.”
Rodgers made seven changes from the 1-0 Europa League win over Zenit St Petersburg on Thursday, with Tom Rogic, Cristian Gamboa, Jack Hendry, Calvin Miller, Charly Musonda, Odsonne Edouard and Scott Sinclair all starting.
“You have to be careful, we have so many games,” added the manager, whose side travel to Russia for the second leg on Thursday, before a meeting with Aberdeen at Pittodrie on Sunday.
“Scott Brown was suspended, Mikael Lustig had a niggle on his Achilles and we couldn’t risk that, and Olivier Ntcham was ill so he couldn’t play.
“Olivier should be fine, Browny will be available and Mikael should be fine, it was precautionary. They will be fine for Thursday.
“There were lots of positives for us in terms of players. It was Tom Rogic’s first game in two months, we have to take opportunities at some point to play some of these guys, like Cristian Gamboa and Calvin Miller.
“Even if we had a full-strength side it would have still been difficult.”