St Mirren 1-5 Celtic: Hoops' show impressive five-goal come back fight

St Mirren 1-5 Celtic: Hoops show impressive resilience to come back from going a goal down to knock FIVE past The Buddies, taking nine-point lead over Rangers at the top of the Scottish Premiership

• Celtic put forward an impressive comeback to defeat St Mirren 5-1 at Paisley
• The Hoops went a 1-0 down within five minutes through Mark O’Hara’s penalty  
• Jota and Alistair Johnson both responded in quick succession in the second term
• Liel Abada, Matt O’Riley, and Oh Hyeonghu all finished off the scoring for Celtic

DOWN to an early goal to Mark O’Hara in Paisley, Celtic were looking vulnerable to history repeating itself at the one ground in Scottish football where Ange Postecoglou’s team has always tended to toil.

Remarkably, the Parkhead club had never scored against St Mirren at the SMiSA Stadium during the usually relentless reign of the Australian manager.

A 0-0 last season was a followed up by a loss here in September, with O’Hara again opening the scoring before Jonah Ayunga completed the shock 2-0 scoreline.

But any fear that lightning was about to strike twice proved unfounded as the goals rained in during a five-star second half performance by the Scottish champions. Jota, Alistair Johnston, Liel Abada, Matt O’Riley all netted before a penalty by Oh Hyeonghu rounded off this rout.

Celtic defeated St Mirren 5-1 at the SMISA Stadium on Sunday after going a goal down

The hosts went one-up inside five minutes with Mark O’Hara slotting a penalty past Joe Hart

Celtic had their own penalty shout soon after when it looked like Kyogo Furuhashi was fouled

Charles Dunne received a red card for fouling the Celtic forward but no penalty was given

The ruthlessness of Celtic’s performance after the break rendered any controversy over a first half penalty they were awarded — that was then overruled by VAR — irrelevant.

But Charles Dunne’s ordering off for hauling back Kyogo Furuhashi seven minutes before the break was the undoubted turning point for Stephen Robinson’s side who had been coping comfortably until the flash of David Dickinson’s red card.

Saints had taken an early lead when Alex Greive’s flick in the box caught the arm of Celtic’s Greg Taylor.

Referee Dickinson initially waved played on but after what seemed like an eternity for the ball to go out of play the match official was invited to take a second look at the incident on VAR.

Jota ( left) poked home to bring Celtic back into the match at 1-1 after a great cross from Mooy

Alastair Johnson (middle) then put the hosts up five minutes later heading the ball into the net

 He correctly awarded the spot kick and O’Hara rolled the ball low into the bottom left corner past the despairing dive of Joe Hart.

Celtic were enjoying possession but rarely threatening. But there was a brief heart-in-mouth moment when goalkeeper Trevor Carson collided with his defender Ryan Strain while going for a Jota cross.

Jota forced a save from Carson after a fine flowing team move. Then when Marcus Fraser cleared another Jota cross from the right the ball fell to Reo Hatate at the edge of the box and his 20 yard drive scraped the top of the crossbar.

St Mirren had been playing well but football’s capacity to turn in a moment was underlined as disaster struck for the Buddies.

Dunne undercooked a pass back to Carson. As the all-action Furuhashi raced onto the ball and the defender panicked and hauled the Japan striker to the ground.

Dickinson showed a red card and pointed to the spot, only for VAR official Andrew Dallas to inform his colleague that the offence had taken place outside the box.

Liel Albada (right) celebrated getting the away side’s third goal, before teeing up the next

Match Facts 

St Mirren (5-3-2): Carson 6; Strain 6 (Watt 62), Fraser 7, Gogic 6, Dunne 5, Small 6 (Shaughnessy 62); Baccus 6, Kiltie 6 (F Taylor 74, O’Hara 6; Greive 5 (R Taylor 45), Main 6 (Tanser 75).

Subs not used: Urminsky, Flynn, Offord, Jamieson.

Booked: Strain.

Sent off: Dunne.

Goal: O’Hara pen 6.

Celtic (4-3-3): Hart 7; Johnston 7, Carter-Vickers 7, Starfelt 7; Mooy 8 (Iwata 74), McGregor 7, Hatate 7 (O’Rileu 66); Jota 7 (Haksabanovic 71), Kyogo 6 (Oh 66) Maeda 5 (Abada 46).

Subs not used: Bain, Turnbull, Kobayashi, Ralston.

Booked: None.

Goals: Jota 56, Johnston 61, Abada 70, O’Riley 72, Oh pen 81.

Man of the Match: Aaron Mooy.

Referee: David Dickinson.

Attendance: 6,939.

As Postecoglou gave a wry smile, the penalty was overturned and the freekick at the edge of the box ended with Celtic captain Callum McGregor’s shot being blocked.

Dunne’s red card meant it was the end of the match for Greive as Robinson sacrificed a striker and sent on centre half Richard Taylor.

Even before the red card, St Mirren had been retreating deeper and deeper. A long second half was in store for the 10 men who were loudly cheered off at the break. And so it proved.

The ineffectual Daizen Maeda was replaced at the break by Liel Abada. And Abada was involved as Celtic broke Saints’ stubborn resistance.

Johnston found Abada, who played the ball to Aaron Mooy. The former St Mirren midfielder’s low cross was blocked but Jota showed quick thinking while on the ground to divert the ball into the far post despite Strain’s desperate attempt to clear.

Then when Jota was obstructed on the left flank, Celtic had a freekick in a dangerous area. Mooy’s delivery to the back post was dangerous and the ball was diverted into his own net by Johnston under the close attentions of O’Hara.

Oh Hyeonghu (middle) polished off the scoring with a very well taken goal from the spot 

Celtic nearly had a third when Carson’s faintest of touches saw Jota’s cross evade Furuhashi in the middle. Abada’s shot was cleared off the line by Taylor.

But Mooy soon claimed a hat-trick of assists when he found Abada in the box and the Israeli made space for himself before finding the bottom left corner of the net.

Barely 60 seconds later, Abada turned provider on the right, picking out substitute Matt O’Riley on the six yard box to turn home a fourth.

Saints had well and truly crumbled Celtic had a penalty when a tired-looking Alex Gogic pulled back substitute Oh in the box. The South Korean international striker picked himself up and fired a low spot kick under Carson and into the net.

What had started as a nervy afternoon at Postecoglou’s bogey ground ended with ‘Superstitious’ by Stevie Wonder playing as the Scottish champions celebrated maintaining their nine point lead at the top of the table amid a lengthy unbeaten domestic run of 25 matches.

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