Cameron Carter-Vickers and Celtic left it late as they stole all three points on the road to come away with a dramatic win over St. Johnstone.
St. Johnstone 1-2 Celtic
There was high drama at McDiarmid Park as Celtic scored a goal deep in stoppage time to secure the win over St. Johnstone to maintain their two-point gap ahead of Rangers.
Cameron Carter-Vickers, who had been out of action due to injury, returned for the Hoops and wore the captain’s armband for the day as he went the distance, completing 90 percent of his passes and winning four duels.
The visitors were in dominant form for a majority of the game, but that did not result in goals when they reached the final third. They would receive some help from St. Johnstone in the 42nd minute when Sead Haksanabovic’s cross to the center was redirected into the hosts’ goal by Andrew Considine.
The second half would be much of the same as Celtic pressed for more goals only to be stopped by St. Johnstone’s stingy defending.
Things took a turn in the third minute of stoppage time when the hosts leveled the score. Alex Mitchell was able to pounce on the ball through a crowd of people in the area from a free-kick to poke it past Celtic goalkeeper Joe Hart.
It looked like the points would be shared, but Celtic scored the game-winner two minutes later when Giorgos Giakoumakis bundled home a cross from Alexandro Bernabei.
The Hoops remain atop of the standings with 24 points.
Notes
In other Premiership action, both Ian Harkes and Christian Ramirez came off the bench for their respective teams as Dundee United finally won their first game of the season witha 4-0 drubbing of Aberdeen.
James Sands and Malik Tillman watched all the action from the bench as Rangers secured a 4-0 win over St. Mirren.
In the Championship, Brian Schwake had an easy day between the posts as Greenock Morton thrashed Hamilton Academical by a 5-0 scoreline.
Down in League One, Emmanuel Johnson watched from the bench as FC Edinburgh blanked Kelty Hearts with a 2-0 win.
