THE chant echoed round St Mirren Park from the Celtic fans yesterday:
"There's only one John Guidetti." Unfortunately for him, the goals panel may well arrive at the same conclusion when they meet this week to consider the providence of the two strikes which took this match beyond their Paisley hosts.
While there was no doubt the 22-year-old Swede was responsible for the fine winning goal which took the wind out of St Mirren's sails just after the hour mark, huge confusion surrounded the effort which broke the deadlock as we approached half-time.
Like all good strikers, Guidetti claimed it, his case seemingly strengthened by the fact referee Craig Thomson awarded it to him. But, on reflection, the final touch may have come from the luckless Jim Goodwin.
To be fair, even the Swede conceded that the circumstances surrounding the goal meant he wasn't the most reliable of witnesses.
"I had everything to do with the first goal," he joked afterwards. "The referee's come to me before the start of the second half and said 'John, I've given you the goal' and you know what they say, don't argue with the referee. So that's good enough for me. I just say thank you very much.
"To be absolutely fair, I was just going to tap it in and then I got absolutely smashed for the third time by the number six [Goodwin]," the Swede added. "I didn't know which planet I was on for a brief moment. I said to the ref 'red card surely or something'. Then I saw the ball in the back of the net."
As it turned out, even the Swede's second goal was a source of intrigue. He sent it into the net with a sweep of his left leg, the same one which moments earlier had gone into a spasm of cramp. "I felt a massive cramp in my left leg seconds earlier," Guidetti said. "But I feel you let the team down if you walk off at 1-1."
The player would leave the fray shortly afterwards to rest up - the injury is not thought to be serious - but undeniably he has hit the ground running as a Celtic player, far more so than the player who replaced him, £2.3m man Stefan Scepovic. For his part, Goodwin conceded the final touch had been his and sneakily admitted to the Swede that he should also have had a "stone-cold penalty" earlier in the half. "It's disappointing to have an own goal against me," said Goodwin. "As a defender you never want that. I did the best I could, got a touch on it and it hit Guidetti and came back off me. I'd rather it went to him, to be honest, but if you give it to me then so be it."
The surprise omission from the Celtic match day squad was Kris Commons, last season's player of the year succumbing to a strained buttock.
His absence facilitated the pacy Mubarak Wakaso coming in on the right side, Callum McGregor being accommodated in a central area, with Anthony Stokes continuing where he left off against Hearts on the left. Eoghan O'Connell filled in for the injured Jason Denayer at centre-half.
It didn't take long for Guidetti to get going. The match was only two minutes old by the time he was haring on to a Virjil van Dijk through pass and forcing Marian Kello to save, but St Mirren had no intentions of giving up without a fight.
Young John McGinn showed admirable tenacity to get in the face of Scott Brown throughout and it was a statement of intent when Thomas Reilly let fly from fully 25 yards, his drive rebounding back from the junction of post and bar. Referee Thomson gave Goodwin the benefit of the doubt when he and Jeroen Tesselaar double teamed to defy Guidetti in the penalty box, although Reilly had no defence when he cynically took Wakaso out down the left.
St Mirren's hopes of reaching half-time goalless were to no avail. Izaguirre played in Brown down the left, and in his effort to stop Guidetti converging on his low cross, Goodwin only succeeded in bundling the ball over the line.
Gregg Wylde arrived at half- time for Tesselaar, presumably in an attempt to expose Efe Ambrose's frailties at right-back, and it didn't take long for this approach to bear fruit.
With Craig Gordon overly keen to launch a quick attack with a poor throw, McGinn was soon squaring the ball from the left. Jason Naismith forced a save from Gordon before McLean gleefully knocked in the rebound.
The force was with St Mirren now, and who knows what might have happened if Calum Ball had been able to convert another Wylde cross.
But instead the decisive goal arrived at the other end. Wylde was too hasty with a pass out from defence, Stokes found a precise reverse pass, and Guidetti - cramp or no cramp - swept the ball into the net.
St Mirren manager Tommy Craig, was left to stew over what might have been. "We played well, but it is another defeat. How many times have you heard me say that this season?"
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