Celtic Edge St Johnstone with Baur's First Goal

Mika Baur’s first Celtic goal was hardly a classic, but it carried the weight of a title defence gathering speed.

On a tense afternoon at McDiarmid Park, the champions dug out a 1-0 win over stubborn Premiership newcomers St Johnstone to stretch their perfect start to six league games and move five points clear of Rangers.

It was scrappy. It was nervy. It was exactly the kind of game that decides championships.

O’Neill shuffles the pack

With a Europa League tie looming and an Old Firm cup-and-league double on the horizon, Martin O’Neill was never going to risk running his regulars into the ground. He made five changes, handed Kasper Hogh a start on his return from injury and brought in Sam Johnstone between the posts.

The reshuffle took time to settle. Celtic had the ball, but St Johnstone had the chances.

Haissem Hassan drew an early save from the home goalkeeper after just five minutes, a low drive turned away as Celtic tried to impose themselves. That should have been a warning that the visitors could still create, even below their best.

Instead, the half belonged to Simo Valakari’s side.

Joel Cotterill, on his first St Johnstone start, almost wrote the dream script on 19 minutes. He met Alic’s low cross perfectly and looked certain to score, only for Johnstone to spring up and palm the ball over the bar – a huge intervention that O’Neill later admitted might have kept Celtic from going behind.

The pressure didn’t stop there. Callum McGregor saw a shot deflected wide by Campbell at the other end, but the clearer openings fell to the hosts. Diabate had one effort hooked off the line by Donovan, then headed another Tounekti cross past the post just before the break.

Celtic went in level. They could just as easily have gone in chasing the game.

Baur breaks through

Whatever O’Neill said at half-time, Celtic came out with more intent. The breakthrough arrived just seven minutes after the restart.

McAlear had already tested Johnstone with a straight effort for St Johnstone, a reminder that the game was still very much alive, when the visitors finally sliced through.

Hassan darted into space on the right and drilled a low cross across the face of goal. Baur, timing his run perfectly, arrived at the back post and simply couldn’t miss. A tap-in, his first Celtic goal, and a moment that might yet feel bigger in the context of this season than it looked on the day.

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

St Johnstone refused to fold, and Celtic’s wastefulness kept the door open.

The ball in, or out?

The champions thought they had their cushion on 66 minutes. Hogh rose to head the ball back across goal, Hassan smashed it in, and Celtic wheeled away to celebrate a second.

Then the flag went up.

The assistant ruled the ball had gone out of play before Hogh hooked it back. With no definitive angle to overturn it, the on-field call stood – a point Sky Sports pundit James McFadden underlined as he backed the assistant’s position, stressing that without clear proof, the decision had to remain.

Celtic raged in the moment, but the scoreboard stayed at 1-0. The game stayed alive.

Hassan almost made amends soon after, curling an effort that Steward pushed past the post. James Forrest then danced on the edge of the box, twisting away from defenders before seeing his shot beaten away by the inspired home keeper.

Celtic kept creating. They just wouldn’t finish it.

St Johnstone’s chances slip away

For all of Celtic’s pressure, St Johnstone still believed.

Alic sent a shot inches wide with 10 minutes to play, a reminder that one clean strike could undo all of Celtic’s work. Moments later, Nygren slipped Hogh through, only for Steward to block again and turn the shot behind.

Nygren then met a Forrest cross and directed his header into the goalkeeper’s arms. Another chance gone. Another moment where McDiarmid Park held its breath.

Valakari knew exactly where the game had slipped away.

“We definitely had our moments,” he said afterwards, reflecting on the opportunities his side carved out. St Johnstone created enough to score, but against this level of opposition, “you don’t get that many” and they didn’t take them.

Celtic, for all their control, were just as aware of the fine margins.

O’Neill satisfied, but not fooled

O’Neill cut a conflicted figure when it was over. Pleased with the points, far less pleased with the performance.

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

Celtic could have scored “a number of goals,” he said, but never found the composure to kill the contest. Even if they had grabbed a second, he insisted, he never felt St Johnstone were out of it.

He kept circling back to Johnstone’s first-half save from Cotterill. Without it, the narrative might have flipped completely.

Yet the hard truth for the rest of the league is this: Celtic are winning even when they’re untidy. This was their 13th victory in a row in all competitions, a run stretching back into the closing weeks of last season. Six from six in the Premiership. Five points clear at the top.

St Johnstone’s unbeaten home record in the league is gone. Celtic’s grip on the summit tightens.

Next up? A Europa League tie, then Rangers twice in quick succession – cup and league – with the next Premiership meeting between the Glasgow rivals live a week on Sunday.

Celtic haven’t hit top gear yet. The question now is simple: if this is them grinding, what happens when they finally start to flow?