Sam Johnstone's Debut Performance Sparks Goalkeeping Dilemma for Celtic

Sam Johnstone walked off McDiarmid Park grinning, the kind of grin that tells you a week has just flipped on its head.

"Amazing. What a feeling."

The words came easily after a night like this. Twenty-one months without a league appearance, suddenly back under the lights, and delivering a debut that kept Celtic’s perfect start intact in a grinding 1-0 win over St Johnstone.

Surprise call, emphatic answer

His name on the teamsheet raised eyebrows. A Wolves loanee, just through the door, preferred to Viljami Sinisalo, who has barely put a glove wrong. It felt like a gamble.

It didn’t look like one for long.

Johnstone, 33 and capped four times by England, played like a man determined to turn a short-term opportunity into something far more permanent. Three saves, all from efforts inside the box, underlined his sharpness. One of them will linger in the memory.

Joel Cotterill met a cross with a crisp first-time strike that seemed destined to rip open the champions’ evening. Johnstone exploded upwards, throwing out an arm to tip the ball over with pure reflex. A split-second, season-shaping kind of stop.

The basics were there too. He claimed his only aerial duel, punched cleanly when he had to, and used the ball with a calm assurance – 31 of 38 passes completed, five of them drilled into the final third to turn defence into attack. Only a late bout of cramp interrupted an otherwise composed return to league football.

"It's been a rollercoaster week, coming in and getting to know the lads and staff, training and watching a couple of games," he said, still riding the adrenaline. "So to finally get on the pitch and get a win, clean sheet, play in front of the fans, it was an unbelievable feeling. I'm really happy."

O'Neill’s dilemma before Ibrox

If this was an audition, it landed squarely on Martin O’Neill’s desk.

The Celtic manager has been loyal to Sinisalo, and didn’t hide his admiration for the Finn’s form. But Johnstone’s performance has changed the conversation before Sunday’s League Cup quarter-final at Ibrox.

"The save was fantastic, a really, really brilliant reaction save," O'Neill said. "He's a fine goalkeeper and it's just a matter of him getting up to speed with things. Sinisalo's done very, very well indeed, and while I [ideally] do not want to use games like this, I have to find out about a number of players.

We'll see what happens on Sunday but we've got loads and loads of games and it is really nice to know that I have actually two really decent goalkeepers."

That last line is the crux. For once, Celtic’s problem is a luxury one.

Two No 1s, one shirt

Pat Bonner knows what it means to guard the Celtic goal. The former keeper watched Johnstone closely and saw a man who did more than just get through his debut.

"Johnstone looked commanding and had that terrific reflex save. He did good, he'll be under more pressure in other games," he told BBC Sportsound. "It will be interesting to see what the manager does now - does he keep him in or go with Sinisalo? Celtic have two good goalkeepers at the moment."

Commanding. Reflex. Pressure. Those are Ibrox words.

Johnstone has barged his way into the conversation with 90 minutes of authority in Perth. Sinisalo has the body of work, the trust built over time. One game does not rewrite a season, but it can tilt the manager’s thinking.

Celtic head to Govan with a flawless league record, a cup on the line, and a derby that can shape momentum. Somewhere in the middle of that storm, O’Neill has to make a simple but brutal choice.

Johnstone or Sinisalo?

Only one of them walks out at Ibrox with the gloves.