To wheel out an old cliché, Alistair Johnston was like a new signing for Celtic against Hibs.
Handed a first Scottish Premiership start since September, the defender breathed fresh energy into a Celtic side which has laboured for much of the season.
Johnston was injured in Celtic’s home leg against Kairat back in August, remaining on the sidelines until October. When he was reintroduced from the start against Sturm Graz in the Europa League, the injury reoccurred.
A long, cautious road to recovery now looks to be over, if his 65-minute display at Easter Road is anything to go by.
Who was your Celtic MOTM vs Hibs??
Alistair Johnston is unhurt by Celtic’s long season
Celtic’s players have gone through a lot this season.
From the sudden resignation of Brendan Rodgers to the momentum of Martin O’Neill being destroyed by the sudden confusion of Wilfried Nancy, it’s been truly chaotic.
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When Johnston was introduced from the bench against St Mirren last week, it was his first appearance since the departure of Rodgers.
Things were far from perfect then, but the instability of the six months since have resulted in some serious bumps along the road, particularly during the 33-day spell of Nancy.
Ironically, Johnston was the only player in the Celtic team who was familiar with Nancy, having starred under him at Montreal. Instead of reuniting with his old boss, he had to watch his team unravel from the sidelines.
His intuition to play the one-two with Benjamin Nygren that led to Daizen Maeda’s equaliser was a display of attacking quality which has been desperately lacking in quality.
Make no mistake: it’s no coincidence that it came from a man who is unaccustomed to the football we have seen from Celtic over the last few months.
Johnston is unhurt by the last six months; he is a fresh pair of eyes and a much-needed clear head. He knows how to play (and win) with Callum McGregor, Arne Engels and Hyunjun Yang.
Julian Araujo did a stellar job in deputising for the Canadian, but Johnston’s familiarity with what a winning Celtic team looks like will be an asset for the run-in.
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Martin O’Neill on Celtic’s Alistair Johnston
Speaking after the game O’Neill said of Johnston: “I thought he did really well. He’s a proper athlete, from the start.
“He played about 20 minutes last week, he started the game here, always felt he was only going to get about 60-65 minutes anyway,
“And that’s a problem, because we’ve got a number of players that you’re starting to think… What you don’t want is a plethora of players coming off after 65 minutes.
“But it’s the nature, it’s what has happened to us. But his overall performance I thought was really good, really, really good. A good player, and I think he has been missed, obviously, during the course of the season.
“We have had to get Julian Araujo in from Bournemouth, who I thought did very, very well for us, but they tell me that Alistair’s a real, real proper player.
“And from the bits that I’ve seen in the training that we’ve done, and in these games, you can see that he’s been a major player for the club.”
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