Celtic broke their own 100-year-old British record by stretching their unbeaten domestic run to 63 games with a 4-0 win away to St Johnstone. Scott Sinclair, Moussa Dembele and Olivier Ntcham were on target and Steven Anderson netted an own goal as Celtic strolled to three Premiership points at McDiarmid Park. Saints were the last Scottish team to beat Celtic, on 11 May, 2016, in Ronny Deila's penultimate game in charge. But the Perth side had not scored in five game before the visit of Brendan Rodgers' men, who are a different proposition from the team managed by the Norwegian. The win was as one-sided a game as Celtic have enjoyed during an 18-month spell of invincibility in Scottish football. St Johnstone were not helped by the absence of Brian Easton, Murray Davidson and Chris Millar through injury and Michael O'Halloran was only fit enough for the bench, coming on for pre-game doubt Stefan Scougall just before the hour mark. Celtic named the same team that lost out to Bayern Munich in a 2-1 Champions League game on Tuesday and there was little sign of fatigue. Scott Sinclair opens the scoring (c) Jeff Holmes/PA Wire/PA Images James Forrest, Dembele, Callum McGregor and Sinclair saw shots held by Zander Clark as Celtic pushed their hosts back and Sinclair almost got in following a one-two with Dembele. The breakthrough looked inevitable and it came from a 28th-minute corner. Stuart Armstrong delivered a low ball into the heart of the penalty box and Sinclair read his intentions before firing a first-time strike into the roof of the net from 12 yards out. Armstrong and McGregor came close with curling efforts and Saints' only first-half shot on target came from 35 yards out, Craig Gordon grasping Blair Alston's free-kick after initially looking troubled by the bounce. |
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