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Dave Mackay admits that only one player emerged from St Johnstone’s double-header with Celtic having enhanced his reputation.
Keeper Graeme Smith may have given up six goals over the course of the Co-operative Insurance Cup and SPL encounters between these sides but he produced a string of top saves across the 180 minutes to spare St Johnstone a couple of cuffings – as Mackay readily acknowledged.
Smith has been hoping to use these live TV clashes to convince boss Derek McInnes to stick with him when Peter Enckelman regains fitness.
According to Mackay, despite the scorelines he must have boosted his chances of hanging on to the jersey.
“Smithy has done really well in these games,” said the man who skippered Saints in the absence of Jody Morris.
“He’s made some good stops including one at their first goal today. He must be gutted at how the matches have turned out.
“But he’s done nothing wrong. As far as staying in the team is concerned he can’t have done himself any harm.”
In the lead up to Saturday’s encounter, McInnes had been hammering home to his side the need-after the Hoops scored three times in the first 13 minutes in midweek-to safely negotiate the opening period and make Celtic work for their chances.
But his pleas fell on deaf ears as Saints handed the Hoops a gift-wrapped opener with just 70 seconds played.”Sloppy” SaintsMidfielder Liam Craig needlessly fouled Georgios Samaras out wide, and from the resulting Ki Sung Yeung free-kick Anthony Stokes was able to fire off a shot which Smith did well to push aside.
But with the home defence napping, Niall McGinn rammed home the loose ball.
Wastefulness on Celtic’s part allowed the Perth men to get within five minutes of the interval without going further behind.
But then Steven Milne, in attempting a risky back pass to Smith, played the ball straight to Emilio Izaguirre, who expertly slotted it away.
Mackay said, “We never gave ourselves a chance. We’d been talking in the changing room beforehand about the need to get through the first 15 minutes without conceding.
“But then we went out and gave away a sloppy goal a little more than a minute in and were left with a mountain to climb.
“It wasn’t just one mistake for that goal. The free-kick didn’t need to be given away, the boy who gets the initial shot in isn’t picked up and then their player reacts quickest to the loose ball.
“For the second Savo just hasn’t seen the lad when he’s looked to play it back. It’s not just the odd individual mistake which did for us. It was collective errors.”
He added, “But today wasn’t just about not defending properly.
“We never really looked like scoring either. The other night Celtic panicked when we got it back to 3-1. If we’d made it 2-1 today it might have been really interesting.””So disappointing”Mackay said, “It’s so disappointing. If we didn’t come into this game with confidence after finishing the cup tie the way we did then we’re never going to fancy our chances against Celtic.
“It’s hard enough against the Old Firm at 0-0 – never mind handing them a lead.”
Saints rallied to an extent following the break but only after Smith spared them going three down with a fine save from Cha Du Ri.
The otherwise unimpressive Jennison Myrie-Williams – just as he’d done in the cup tie – brought a terrific one-handed save out of Fraser Forster, with Marcus Haber incredibly failing to net the loose ball (albeit he was offside in any case).
Forster punched away a mishit Myrie-Williams effort as Haber shaped to at least work the under-employed Celtic keeper.
However, three minutes from time Danny Grainger, booked for pointing out forcibly to linesman James Bee that Thomas Rogne had fouled him at the opener, pulled back Stokes and was yellow-carded again.
Seventy seconds from the end McGinn finished off a fine move by smashing the ball home with one foot, via his other.
In mitigation for what a limp display, Saints could point to the absence of both Jody Morris and Murray Davidson from their midfield. But giving long-term absentees Peter MacDonald and Steven Milne their first starts of the campaign didn’t pay off and frankly they were never at the races, as the manager recognised.
McInnes said, “We weren’t very good at all. I expected us to put up more of a fight. Celtic didn’t need to be at their best to win the game hands down.”
Hoops boss Neil Lennon’s decision to introduce Rogne alongside Daniel Majstorovic at the back was rewarded by with a solid defensive display from his side, who in the first-half also pulled Saints all over the place.
He said, “I was delighted with the performance, the goals and the clean sheet.
“Cha came in after Shaun Maloney suffered a recurrence of a bug he’s had just before the game and did a superb job, Niall made an invaluable contribution and I thought Izaguirre was top drawer.”