Celtic 5-0 St Johnstone: Commons magic seals semi-final place

ANY similarities between the Celtic that breezed through to the semi-final of the Scottish Communities League Cup last night and the side that

succumbed in fairly shambolic fashion to Kilmarnock at

the weekend are purely coincidental.

Scorers: Celtic - Commons (28, 32, 57 (pen)), Hooper (38), Mulgrew (61)

Bookings: Celtic - Ambrose, Lustig, Watt; St Johnstone - MacKay, Anderson, Miller, Hasselbaink, MacLean

Attendance: 14,399

Three goals inside ten minutes of a first-half that could have brought the home team any amount of joy allowed them to demolish a St Johnstone side that seemed strangely spooked from the get-go.

Ultimately, it was one of the self-confessed culprits of a

57-year record-ending reverse at the weekend, Kris Commons, who was the architect of an embarrassing one-sided tie. He scored a hat-trick and delivered the centre for Gary Hooper to make it 3-0 after

38 minutes.

What last night perhaps reminded is that Celtic are likely to be an entirely different side on the domestic front when faced with a must-win game. Not just in terms of mindset but, as importantly, personnel.

It wasn’t any great surprise that, after the ghoulish display his team produced in losing to Kilmarnock at the weekend, Neil Lennon reverted to a team that was along the lines of the one that had performed heroically in the Champions League last midweek. That meant the return of Gary Hooper, Scott Brown, Victor Wanyama and Mikael Lustig to the home starting line-up. If he were fit, Georgios

Samaras would no doubt have been deployed, too.

In every respect, last night’s cup tie was always a more important fixture for Celtic than the weekend clash with

Kilmarnock. They won’t surrender any silverware through

losing the odd league game;

a cup-tie reverse would have put paid to any prospects of a treble.

The inclusion of Brown, in particular, resulted in Celtic looking more cohesive and commanding inside two minutes than they had in the entire 90 against Kenny Shiels’ side. Whatever pain the Celtic captain might be in from his degenerative hip problem that is requiring his games to be rationed, Celtic seem to suffer from a pained indifference when he isn’t injecting them with energy. He did that and more for an hour last night, crafting a number of opening from a wide right position as Celtic .

Steve Lomas had feared his St Johnstone team finding themselves on the wrong end of a two-pronged backlash – Celtic smarting not just from the weekend reverse but the loss to last night’s opponents in Perth last month. The Irishman’s means of preventing that – while deprived of integral centre-back Fraser Wright – seemed to be merely sitting in and hoping. For a team who hadn’t experienced defeat in nine games, it struck as a decidedly defeatist approach.

There were times in the early proceedings that Celtic’s domination of territory and possession made their Champions League experience in the Nou Camp a week ago look like a contest of ebb and flow. Yet, for all that it was only ever a matter of time before the visitors’ goal was breached, it took a generous slice of good fortune for the first goal to arrive in the 28th minute.

Commons fizzed in a low shot from the right that looked as if it was going past before Liam Craig, sliding in to block at the near post, sent the ball arcing up and out goalkeeper Alan Mannus’s reach. Nonetheless, it was still credited to Commons and sent him on his way to a night to remember.

Five minutes later, the tie was as good as wrapped up with a slick, precise passing move that would have allowed Lennon to truly believe the Kilmarnock reverse was an aberration in a month of otherwise domestic perfection.

Brown initiated the move, feeding Lustig down the right. He, in turn, immediately whipped a ball in from the right to Tony Watt – preferred to the disappeared and disappearing Miku – who showed terrific

vision to thread the ball through to Commons.

The Perth club complained the attacker was in an offside

position, but he had held his run to perfection, before lashing a low effort in to the far corner from the right hand-edge of the six-yard box.

Before long, more of the fluid pass-and-move play fro Celtic had crafted them a third goal, which was trademark Hooper, who touch the ball in racing to the front post after Izaguirre had picked out Commons to drill the ball in from the right. Inbetween times, Wanyama had a header of the bar and Mackay had blocked on the line from Lustig.

The interval was only temporary respite for Lomas’s lost and luckless men. There was slightly more by way of forward movement, all of it provided by the tireless efforts of Gregory Tade, but, despite the visitors hit the upright in the closing seconds, didn’t count for anything. It might have if the forward hadn’t be honest enough to stay on his feet after a scything challenge from Kelvin Wilson. It summed up St Johnstone’s night that, seconds after the incident, Steven Anderson was pulled up by referee Bobby Madden for pulling down Watt in the box.

Up steped Commons to send Mannus the other way and, with 36 minutes still to play, it looked as if it could turn exceedingly ugly for St Johnstone.

They will be relieved that the only further punishment ensued from substitute Charlie Mulgrew twisting one way then the other to the left of goal before planting a precise shot in the opposite corner.

Celtic: Forster, Lustig, Ambrose (McCourt 72), Wilson, Izaguirre, Brown (Matthews 63), Wanyama, Ledley, Commons, Hooper (Mulgrew 46), Watt. Subs: Zaluska, McCourt, Kayal.

St Johnstone: Mannus, Miller, McCracken, Anderson, Mackay, Moon, Milne, Craig, Davidson, Vince (McLean 46), Tade (Hasselbaink 74). Subs: Tuffey, Robertson, Scobbie.