Saints 0-1 Celtic

Last updated : 24 February 2008 By Stuart Gillespie
No one will ever convince me after that game that referees aren't biaed towards the Old Firm when they are struggling against smaller teams. After bottling a decision to send off Aiden McGeady for a poor challenge when he'd already been booked, referee Eddie Smith gifted Celtic the winner a few minutes from the end.

Nakamura went down, but it was never in a million years a foul. It seems Gary Mason was penalised for winning the ball from Nakmura, obviously not allowed when you're tackling an Old Firm player. Murdo McLeod - a Celtic man remember - claimed afterwards that Nakmura had fallen over his own player! Whatever, Smith fell for it, gave the free kick and Nakmura curled it home. Celtic fans must be so proud, needing a dodgy free kick a few minutes from the end to see off a wee diddy team.

For pretty much the rest of the game, the Saints fans shouted "Cheat" in Smith's direction. To lose in such a manner was heartbreaking. The Celtic fans, on the other hand, suddenly realised where they were and started making some noise. Greatest fans in the world? About as believable as Aiden McGeady being a wonder kid.

Every Saints player was superb. McGeady has yet to escape from David Barron's back pocket, while the defence were excellent. Mark Howard recovered from his horror show against Falkirk and the front pairing of Craig Dargo and Billy Mehmet - with Andy Dorman charging forward from midfield - got through a power of work.

Tactically, Gus MacPherson got things spot in. Deciding against the 4-5-1 and inclusion of Garry Brady he seems to enjoy, he went with a 3-5-2 and it worked brilliantly. Perhaps the only complaint was not changing the tiring strikeforce sooner, but that wasn't why we lost.

The best two chances fell to Saints, one in each half. Just before the break, Dargo broke from a Celtic corner and brilliantly picked out David van Zanten in the box. The defender did everything right, but Artur Boruc pulled off a great save. The Pole did even better in the second half, using his feet to deny Mehmet.

Celtic were awful. McGeady is obviously the latest player to be overhyped because he's the new Old Firm youngster and will probably end up in the "he wasn't that good anyway" category in a few years when he goes down to some middle ranking Premiership team. Gary Caldwell is poor and Georgios Samaras is, quite frnakly, awful.

But who needs to be good when you've got a referee giving you dodgy free kicks and not sending off players? Let's just hope we can use this injustice to fire us up to play Dundee United on Wednesday night.