Celtic Maintain Perfect Start with Baur's Goal

Mika Baur needed only a yard. One step, one touch, one tap – and his Celtic career finally had a goal to cling to.

It was hardly the most glamorous finish of his life, but it was the one that kept Celtic’s perfect Premiership start intact, stretched their overall winning run to 13 games and maintained a five-point gap over Rangers at the top of the table. On a night when fluency deserted the champions, Baur’s close-range strike at McDiarmid Park did the heavy lifting.

Celtic grind it out as Johnstone stands tall

Martin O’Neill had one eye on Europe and another on an Old Firm double-header, so he rolled the dice. Five changes, Kasper Hogh back from injury, and Sam Johnstone handed the gloves.

The on-loan goalkeeper justified that call almost immediately.

St Johnstone, unbeaten at home this season, went straight for Celtic’s throat. Joel Cotterill, making his first start, nearly wrote his own script on 19 minutes. He met Alic’s low cross perfectly, the ball rising towards the roof of the net, only for Johnstone to throw up a strong hand and tip it over. It was a big save, the kind that changes the tone of a match.

The hosts had already survived an early scare when Haissem Hassan’s effort was beaten away by the home goalkeeper, and Celtic’s rhythm flickered rather than flowed. Callum McGregor saw a shot deflected wide by Campbell, a corner was punched clear by Steward, and still the champions couldn’t impose their usual authority.

St Johnstone smelled uncertainty. Diabate had one effort hooked off the line by Donovan, then headed another chance wide from Tounekti’s teasing cross just before the break. When McAlear danced past McGregor and set up Steven early in the second half, only a tame finish straight at Johnstone stopped McDiarmid Park from erupting.

Celtic looked vulnerable. Then the pressure finally told – at the other end.

Baur’s breakthrough and a touchline controversy

On 52 minutes, Hassan found the clarity in the chaos. He darted down the flank, drilled a low cross into the six-yard box and Baur arrived right on cue. It was the sort of chance you simply cannot miss. He didn’t. A simple tap-in, a first Celtic goal, and a lead O’Neill’s side had scarcely earned but absolutely needed.

The goal should have settled Celtic. It didn’t.

St Johnstone kept coming, and Celtic kept wasting chances to kill the contest. The most contentious moment of the night arrived on 66 minutes. Hogh headed the ball back across goal, Hassan thundered it into the net and wheeled away in celebration – only for the assistant’s flag to cut it short. The ball, the official ruled, had gone out of play before Hogh sent it back in.

Replays were inconclusive. From some angles, the ball looked in. From others, it flirted with the chalk. With no definitive proof, the on-field call stood.

“There’s no way of telling and you have to go with the on-field decision,” said Sky Sports pundit James McFadden. “We can say we think the ball stays in all we like. It doesn’t matter. The assistant referee is along the line of the cross, he’s determined it’s out. There is not a chance that would have been overturned.”

Celtic had to swallow it and go again. Hassan almost found his goal anyway, curling one towards the far corner before Steward pushed it wide. James Forrest twisted and turned to carve out another opening, only to see his shot palmed away. Hogh forced yet another save. Nygren’s header went straight into the goalkeeper’s arms.

The second goal never came. The anxiety did.

St Johnstone’s regret and O’Neill’s frustration

St Johnstone refused to fade. Alic dragged an effort inches wide on 80 minutes. The home crowd roared them on, sensing Celtic’s discomfort. Still the equaliser stayed out.

For O’Neill, the performance was a puzzle he had no real desire to solve on live television.

“I’m not even sure what to make of the game,” he admitted. “I think we made goalscoring, which is very difficult, almost impossible.

“We could have scored a number of goals, we didn’t do. It was just kind of crazy, really. I thought that somebody would just take responsibility, put it in the net and pass, pass, pass.

“Anyway, we’ve won the game, which I’m delighted with. It was the most important thing.”

He didn’t pretend St Johnstone had been out of it, even if Celtic had found that elusive second.

“I thought St Johnstone were never out of the game. Even if we got the second goal, I never felt St Johnstone were out of it. I have to remember that Sam Johnstone’s made a really great save in the first half. Otherwise, they would have taken the lead.”

On the opposite touchline, Simo Valakari’s frustration came from a different place. His side had matched the champions in effort, carved out enough openings, but left with nothing.

“We definitely had our moments,” he said. “The question, can we survive these moments? And when we get our own chance, can we take it? And we did not take it today.

“We know ourselves we can play. We can hurt teams. But then at the same time, you need to take these chances that we created because against this quality team, you don’t get that many.

“We created enough to score a goal and that’s the kind of disappointment of this evening.”

Edge intact ahead of Old Firm test

For all the misfires and missed chances, the numbers are brutal: six wins from six in the league, 13 victories on the spin in all competitions, and a five-point cushion over Rangers.

It wasn’t sparkling. It wasn’t ruthless. It was, however, exactly what champions do on awkward nights at tight grounds against teams who refuse to bow.

Celtic now walk into a Europa League tie and then back-to-back Old Firm clashes with that winning habit still intact. The performances may need to sharpen. The margins may shrink.

But with Baur off the mark, Johnstone already decisive, and O’Neill’s side still finding ways to win, the real question is simple: who is going to knock them off this stride?