The St Johnstone win today most certainly feels monumental in more ways than one.
Goals from James Forrest and Timothy Weah ensured Celtic regained their six-point advantage at the top of the Premiership. But that’s not why this victory feels so important.
The manner in which Celtic had to overcome Tommy Wright’s men has been asked of them often. The only difference this time, however, is that they delivered in convincing fashion.
Everything seemed to be going against the Hoops. It looked like we were denied a stonewall penalty when the tremendous Oliver Burke had his legs taken away from him in the box. Surprise surprise, Willie Collum didn’t see anything wrong with it.
Added to that, Odsonne Edouard had already went off injured. James Forrest would do so later before Kristoffer Ajer was red-carded for a needless last-man challenge.
But, generally, Wright’s extremely defensive-minded Saints were symbolic of what Celtic have often struggled to deal with away from home this season.
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Are Celtic over the mental barrier?
There’s been a mental block away from home this season that had previously seen us win just four of 11 domestically. Today was the fifth in 12, but the numbers aren’t the main thing.
Indeed, it’s the performance level that took such a hike today. The likes of Callum McGregor, Burke, and Scott Brown set the tone with their energy and willingness to receive it under pressure. Ryan Christie can also be thrown into that bracket, even if he mainly struggled to create.
In previous away matches against the likes of Rangers, Hibernian, Motherwell and Kilmarnock to name several – those same performance levels haven’t been on show.
Granted, we’ve won at Saints on two occasions earlier on this season. But, if we’re being honest, they were brutal in both games. But today, their organisation was spot-on, as they constantly tracked Celtic’s runs and barely gave them a moment. To sum up – this was St Johnstone at their absolute best defensively.
Finally and for the first time in a long time away from home, we’ve gotten one over a well-organised side who make life difficult for the opposition.
It may have came at a cost, but this was a huge day in the title-race.