Cameron Carter-Vickers put in another strong shift for Celtic as they beat St. Johnstone in Boxing Day action from the Scottish Premiership.
St. Johnstone 1-3 Celtic
Celtic sent St. Johnstone to their eighth consecutive loss as they came away with a comfortable win at McDiarmid Park.
Cameron Carter-Vickers went the distance for the Hoops, completing 92 percent of his passes and winning three aerial battles.
With every game that comes, Celtic has had to find players in their reserves to replace their injury-riddled starting eleven. However, they have found a way to grind out results as they try to keep the pressure on Rangers for the league title.
The visitors opened the scoring nine minutes into the contest when Josip Juranovic’s low cross from the right side found Liel Abada. His initial shot was saved by St. Johnstone goalkeeper Elliot Parish, but the forward was able to pounce on the loose ball to head it into the goal.
Abada doubled Celtic’s lead in the 22nd minute when Tomas Rogic played a through-ball into the area for his teammate to put away a right-footed strike.
Celtic dominated the game and should have scored more goals during the proceedings, but as with previous games, they lacked sharpness to put the final ball away.
This allowed St. Johnstone to cut the deficit in the 69th minute when Christoper Kane headed in a cross from Viv Solomon-Otabor.
However, Celtic would restore their two-goal lead in the 82nd minute when Rogic played the ball to Nir Bitton to slot home.
The win keeps Celtic in second place in the standings with 45 points.
Notes
In other action, Christian Ramirez assisted on the game-winning goal as Aberdeen came away with the 2-1 victory over Dundee.
Ian Harkes went the distance for Dundee United as they fell to Hibernian in a 3-1 loss.
