Ninety points are secured by Celtic's 90-minute encore

Chief Sports Writer

Friday 4 May 2012

THIS was not so much an intimation of the attractions of summer football as a long, enduring testimony as to what occurs when one team's ambition is to reach 90 points as the opposition is restricted to the hope of narrowing the gap on fourth place and earning a place in the Europa League.

Anthony Stokes celebrates after scoring the only goal of the game at Celtic Park

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Hugh MacDonald

Competition may be the lifeblood of the game but competitiveness is its beating heart. This match held all the aggression of a meeting with the Thai Tims. The youngsters from south-east Asia entertained the fans with a spirited sing-song before the match. The team gave a 90-minute encore that missed the odd note but had enough of a beat to dismiss St Johnstone. A close-range finish by Anthony Stokes after 19 minutes was enough to separate the sides.

On balmy nights such as these, with leagues won and targets manufactured rather than imposed, the major purpose for observers of the champions is to assess the prospects of those who have so far only hinted at their potential. The enigma that is Mo Bangura and the burgeoning talent that is Dylan McGeouch were the two under most scrutiny. The 22-year-old Sierra Leone striker has had a series of auditions and has baffled fans accustomed to a slew of excellent signings acquired at bargain basement prices. Bangura, who cost £2.2m from AIK, is only 22 and surely should be allowed some time to become accustomed to a new environment but the demands at Celtic both are immediate and pressing. He has become the subject of gentle inquiry, mostly along the lines of just what did the scouting team see in him.He failed to deliver a definitive answer to these doubts last night. There were glimmers of promise. He held the ball up well, showed pace behind the defence and smacked a shot against a post in the second half. One driven pass to Stokes was also impressive. But he also failed to control the ball regularly and had a shot that would best be described as an attempt to find touch. Bangura, though, was involved in the six-man move that provided Celtic with the opener. McGeouch's short corner was shuttled from Kris Commons to Victor Wanyama to Mark Wilson to the Sierra Leone forward, whose nudge found Stokes free at the back post.The move, of course, was started almost innocently by the young McGeouch, who found a starting role more difficult than the excellent cameos he has delivered this season. He is not to be condemned by this observation. He has technique, an ability to exploit space and an almost visible inner confidence. He was replaced after 67 minutes by Gary Hooper and was overshadowed by Commons who is finding his bark and bite in the dog days of the season. Sitting just behind the front two, the Scottish internationalist was always an influence, if never as brutally threatening as he had been here against Rangers on Sunday.St Johnstone were limited in the first half to a Liam Craig free-kick that flashed past Lukasz Zaluska and a post and an excellent chance for Murray Davidson. The St Johnstone player, however, was foiled by the diving Pole after an excellent short pass by Jody Morris opened the Celtic defence. Morris, too, had an opening in the second half when sluggishness by Wanyama led to the Celtic player losing the ball in front of the penalty box and the Englishman's chip drifted over Zaluska but wide.The match was then condemned to be played in an on-field atmosphere that may be best described as a non-aggression pact. Wilson, the unluckiest of players, did crumple injured and was later substituted to huge acclaim by a support that senses the captain for the night may be heading for another club in the summer.St Johnstone, who introduced Derek Riordan for Chris Millar before half-time, tried to raise the pace but Zaluska was comfortable under the high ball and not presented with anything that was more challenging. The best opportunity was created and then missed by Hooper. His enterprising run found Joe Ledley and the Welshman's return pass was smacked just wide of a post. The Englishman was more grievously at fault when he applied an unnecessary touch to a shot by substitute Rabiu Ibrahim that was going in. Hooper was offside and the effort was correctly ruled out.The aggression was left to a spat of verbals between Alan Maybury and Stokes that continued longer than a confrontation at Prime Minister's Questions and was presumably as enlightening. The match ended with assistant linesman Raymond Whyte being substituted after a fall. It was a night for the odd occurrence rather than sustained incident. This was a night when action had to play a secondary role to the spoken and sung word.

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Ninety points are secured by Celtic's 90-minute encore

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