Celtic came from behind to hold onto their winning start to their Scottish Premiership title defence as St Mirren suffered their first defeat of the season. It was the battle of the only unbeaten top-flight sides in Paisley as the Buddies looked to continue their blistering start to move top of the table, and they made the perfect start. Nikolas Agrafiotis made no mistake from the penalty spot after Liam Scales’ blatant handball as he attempted to block Chris Mochrie’s effort. The Hoops thought they had hit back when Camilo Duran knocked the ball in from Hyun Jun Yang’s cross soon after, only for it to be ruled out for offside after a VAR check.
Callum McGregor, Hussain Hassan and Yang all missed chances before Scales made amends for his earlier mistake when he rose to bullet Mika Baur’s corner into the net. Duran set up Yang to calmly finish beyond keeper Jacob Chapman to complete Celtic’s turnaround as they then held firm against a dogged St Mirren who had chances to level. New signing Shim Mhueka thought he had netted his first goal in stoppage time, but he too was ruled to be offside. It is five out of five for the champions as they move five points clear of St Mirren at the top of the table. 18: SAVE!
Taylor gets a shot away from the edge of the box but Sinisalo saves. 19: PENALTY TO ST MIRREN! Mochrie’s strike comes off Scales’ arm, and the referee points to the spot. 22: GOAL ST MIRREN! Sinisalo went the right way, but Agrafiotis’ powerful effort hits the bottom corner. 29: GOAL CELTIC! Duran with the response for Celtic! 31: NO GOAL!
Celtic’s celebrations are short-lived as VAR rules out Celtic’s equaliser for offside. 40: SAVE! McGregor meets Baur’s corner but he doesn’t connect properly and Chapman keeps it out. 42: SAVE! Hassan sends in the cross, it eventually lands at Duran’s feet just yards out but the Buddies keeper reacts. 48: WIDE! Hassan with a brilliant ball in for Yang, who somehow puts it past the post.
What a miss! 51: GOAL CELTIC! Scales rises to head in from Baur’s corner. Redemption for the defender. 55: BLOCK! St Mirren almost caught out again.
Scales rises to meet another corner, but this time he heads wide. 64: BLOCK! Nygren cuts the ball back to Yang. Ramsay does well to get in front of him and send it off target. 68: GOAL CELTIC! Duran wins the ball back, Yang goes through one-on-one with Chapman and makes no mistake. 74: SAVE!
Sinisalo denies Thomas as the Buddies refuse to give up. 86: CHANCE! Thomas misses from six yards. He lunges for the ball and can only stretch and put it over! 90+3: GOAL DISALLOWED! Mheuka slots home but the referee rules it out after being called to the monitor.
