ST JOHNSTONE pitched up at Parkhead in red and black stripes reminiscent of AC Milan and so nearly imitated the Italians by snatching a scarcely deserved result in the dying minutes.
Celtic were ludicrously comfortable in the first hour of this match, racking up a two-goal lead courtesy of Teemu Pukki and Charlie Mulgrew, only to end the afternoon living on their nerves as the Perth Saints mounted the unlikeliest of late recoveries.
Substitute Liam Caddis - the brother of former Celtic player Paul - sparked it all with a scrambled close-range effort for his first senior goal with seven minutes left. And those hardy souls who remained inside Parkhead at the end breathed a collective sigh of relief when a fraught three minutes of injury-time saw his fellow substitute Stevie May's flicked effort strike the foot of the post, with Dave MacKay's shot from the rebound parried by Fraser Forster.
While it was a rather unbecoming end to events, it was more than compensated for by a glance at the SPFL Premiership table which showed Celtic had moved within one goal of leaders Inverness. Previous history suggested the season's first encounter with the Perth side would be hazardous for Celtic, but for most of this afternoon it was anything but.
St Johnstone had won here in 2011 and at McDiarmid Park in 2012 but for great swathes of this game Tommy Wright's side were powerless as a strong looking Celtic line-up - the only changes were starts for Pukki and Derk Boerrigter - took up from where they left off at the San Siro.
We were only in the 11th minute when a quick throw by Adam Matthews - given freedom on the right flank despite vaunted talents such as David Wotherspoon and Brian Easton being stationed there - and some typically quick thinking from Anthony Stokes presented Pukki with his first sight of the target at Celtic Park, the Finn obliging with his first home goal. It arrived courtesy of a low, possibly deflected, shot and some poor goalkeeping from Alan Mannus, who allowed it to creep under his body.
Midway through the half, possession stats showed 88% in favour of the home side, and the only mystery was that the Parkhead side hadn't added to their tally. This they promptly did when a Stokes pass was blocked by Wotherspoon, only for it to fall to Mulgrew some 25 yards out and he steered a daisycutter into Mannus's bottom corner, again with the ball seeming to take a nick on the way through. The Scotland man nearly grabbed another with an even sweeter strike, then Boerrigter headed over from a Stokes cross.
St Johnstone's best chances seemed to come from Celtic miscues, such as an ambitious headed back-pass from the same player which Forster had to dive to grab. There was a debut for Israeli midfielder Nir Biton at the break, on for the injured Matthews in a switch which saw Efe Ambrose move to right-back.
But St Johnstone had some choice words from manager Wright in their ears, and before long the introduction of Caddis and May - the top scorer having been omitted for tactical reasons - gave them added impetus.
"We did have a few strong words because they didn't show enough desire or work at a level we expect," said Wright. "It was 20 minutes before we put a tackle in. Neil Lennon will probably think his team took their feet off the gas. There was probably a bit of that and a bit of us just doing better."
With Celtic suddenly leggy and lethargic, May headed over from a Wotherspoon cross then played Chris Millar through, only for the former Celtic player's toe-poked finish to be parried by the alert Forster. Soon St Johnstone had a lifeline when MacKay levered in a cross, and Caddis barged it home at the back post, then earned a booking for wrestling with Forster and Virgil Van Dijk to get the ball back for the restart. "I was just trying to get the ball back and the two biggest guys on the park were bullying me," Caddis said. The ground was in full-on panic mode by the time Steven MacLean was having a softish penalty claim waved away after clashing with Stokes near the edge of the box. A May backheel then struck a post, but Lennon was still a satisfied man last night. "We had no time to prepare for this game," he said. "It was just about recovery from Wednesday and I'm not going to allow the last 10 minutes to detract from the first 80, which was a really top performance."
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