Celtic edged out St Mirren 2-1 in Paisley last night and it was very much a case of picking up the three points and moving onto the next fixture, however, the sooner that game is forgotten about, the better.
Neil Lennon tinkered with his side and as suggested by us at Vital Celtic, he made changes at wing-back, with Jeremie Frimpong dropping out at the expense of Greg Taylor, James Forrest moving across to his preferred right-hand side, Patryk Klimala also started at the expense of on-form Albian Ajeti and in fairness, not many would have noticed if he didn’t bother, such was his level of contribution.
Jim Goodwin’s side took an early lead and it will have been in a manner that just shouldn’t be happening with three towering centre-halves in the line-up, a set-piece wasn’t dealt with and Lee Erwin, who was allowed the time to take an uncertain first touch, fired home.
The lead didn’t last long though and in a game where defending at set-pieces was a novelty, Shane Duffy continued his impressive goal scoring start to his Celtic career with his second in two games, predictably it was another powerful header, surprisingly, the Buddies deciding to leave the away side’s biggest threat unmarked.
Fifteen minutes later and the winning goal was scored as Forrest showed why the gaffer likes to shoehorn him into his team anyway he can, even if he isn’t having a good game he can still contribute and that’s exactly what he did in the 36th minute, heading in unmarked at the far post as the St Mirren defence copied Celtic’s inability to stay with their men.
What's more important?
Three points
Style of play
And so it stayed until full-time with the conspiracy theorists likely to point at two unsuccessful penalty claims for the home side whilst Odsonne Edouard was given the chance to put the game beyond doubt with his own spot kick only to see it saved by on-loan keeper Zdenek Zlamal.
It may be a cliché to say that “the sign of champions is to win when you aren’t playing well”, as long as it doesn’t become a pattern and a rapid return to form is seen at the weekend, then all will be forgiven.