EUROPEAN hangovers aren’t uncommon in football, but teams appearing to have been on the pints the night before a game is a little unusual.
The Celtic players of course would not have enjoyed the nightlife of Warsaw during the week, but the squad that rocked up in Paisley after their Champions League draw with Shakhtar Donetsk more resembled a bedraggled group of lads that had just returned from a stag do than the slick, attacking outfit that we have become accustomed to under Ange Postecoglou’s management.
It was one day short of an entire year ago that Celtic last lost a league game, but their run of 38 matches without defeat came to an abrupt end as goals from Mark O’Hara and Jonah Ayunga gave St Mirren the points. And make no mistake, it was no more than Stephen Robinson’s side deserved.
St Mirren chased and harried, scrapped and scarpered all over the pitch, and all over Celtic. They defended their area stoutly and took their chances when they came.
Celtic on the other hand were all passing and no punch. They were punished for their hesitancy in their own box, and created next to nothing at the opposite end.
Postecoglou had rotated his pack making six changes to the side from midweek. Cameron Carter-Vickers and Josip Juranovic were missing from the squad altogether, the former due to pulling up sore after the game in Poland and the latter being rested.
Reo Hatate, Jota, Sead Haksabanovic and Matt O’Riley dropped to the bench, with Anthony Ralston, Stephen Welsh, former St Mirren man Aaron Mooy, David Turnbull, Liel Abada and Daizen Maeda the men to come in.
Not many – if any - of those fringe players made much of a case for more regular football, but even when Postecoglou threw the kitchen sink at the Saints in the second half, they stood up to the challenge and then some.
There was a minute of applause to mark the passing of Queen Elizabeth II prior to the game, which the Celtic fans participated in to an extent. They unveiled a banner saying ‘If You Hate the Royal Family Clap Your Hands’ while singing that song in protest.
There was an unnecessary kit clash on the field of play, Celtic emerging in their grey and black away strip up against the white and black of the hosts, a visit to St Mirren something of an illogical time to give it an airing.
The Celtic players seemed able to pick each other out clearly enough for the most part, passing the ball around and dominating possession as you would expect, but they were offering next to nothing in front of goal.
St Mirren were content to sit in their shape and restrict the chances created by their opponents, and in fairness, they managed well in the opening 20 minutes, and started to slowly offer one or two threats of their own on the counter.
Their biggest triumph though was in frustrating the visiting players, stopping them taking quick free-kicks or throw-ins by means fair and foul, and a couple of shoves from Celtic players on their opponents hinted that they were getting under their skin a little.
The Saints players were starting to believe against the sluggish Celts, and just before the interval, it was they who grasped the opener. Ryan Strain had provided an outlet down the right since the start, and it was he who got down the line and hung a ball up to the back post where O’Hara came barrelling in to thump a header past Joe Hart.
The goal was a microcosm of what had happened since the start of the game, with the St Mirren man simply wanting it more.
The only surprise about Postecoglou’s changes at the break was that there were only two of them, with Mooy and Maeda making way for Hatate and Jota.
They couldn’t immediately shake Celtic out of their torpor though, and eight minutes after the restart, St Mirren doubled their lead.
It all came from a simple long throw by Declan Gallagher, with Celtic failing to defend their area. They had chances to clear, but it was the men in black and white who again showed the desire to get to the ball first, Curtis Main eventually heading down for Ayunga to stoop and nod the second into the net from close range.
Postecoglou sent in the cavalry, with Giorgos Giakoumakis and Haksabanovic thrown on, and after an hour, they at least got their first shot on target as Hatate’s deflected effort dribbled into the hands of Trevor Carson.
Saints could have had a third though, and probably should have as O’Hara nodded wide a carbon copy of the chance he buried earlier in the game.
Celtic tried to set up a grandstand finish, but a header from Jota that sailed just wide apart, they struggled to create anything by the way of clear-cut chances against the disciplined St Mirren backline.
In the end, both teams got exactly what they deserved out of the match.
