Celtic's Comeback Victory Over St Mirren as Yang Shines

Celtic walked out of Paisley with three points and a problem.

Yang Hyun-jun, the South Korean winger who has suddenly become central to Martin O’Neill’s attacking plan, struck the winner in a 2-1 comeback victory over St Mirren – then packed his bags for Japan.

He will miss some of the biggest dates in Celtic’s early-season calendar. O’Neill knows it.

“We are going to miss him. He’s in really fine form at the moment,” the Celtic manager admitted after watching Yang score in a second straight game. “But he’s signed off with a brilliant goal. He’s in great form and he’ll work for you going backwards. He doesn’t mind doing the hard graft.”

St Mirren surge, Celtic stagger

For 45 minutes, this looked like St Mirren’s night.

Craig McLeish’s side pressed high, passed with conviction and repeatedly went for the throat. They were a win away from going top of the William Hill Premiership at the interval and played like a team that believed it.

They got their reward midway through the first half. Liam Scales handled in the box, the referee pointed to the spot, and Nikolas Agrafiotis buried the penalty. Simple, ruthless, fully deserved.

O’Neill did not argue with that verdict.

“They played very, very well indeed,” he said. “Caused us plenty of problems and took the lead. A 10 or 15-minute spell in the first half where I thought we were well and truly second best.”

St Mirren’s front-foot approach left Celtic ragged. The hosts racked up 19 shots on target over the 90 minutes, a number that tells its own story about the flow of the game and the pressure Joe Hart faced.

Celtic’s response

Something had to change. It did, almost immediately after the restart.

Celtic came out with more bite, more aggression, and a lot more urgency. The set-piece that dragged them level was classic O’Neill-era Celtic: direct, determined and delivered with conviction.

Six minutes into the second half, Scales atoned for his earlier handball. The Irish defender attacked a cross and powered in the equaliser, a header that shifted the noise, the mood and the momentum.

“We came out with renewed energy, renewed determination in the second half, got the equalising goal and went on to win it,” O’Neill said. “But it was a tough evening for us.”

The pressure finally told on the break.

Yang’s parting blow

Midway through the second half, with St Mirren still trying to play their way through the lines, Celtic struck from a turnover. Camilo Duran robbed Ryan Carr 10 yards inside the Celtic half and suddenly green and white shirts were streaming forward.

Within seconds, the ball was at Yang’s feet. One clean, decisive finish later, Celtic had turned the game on its head.

It was the sort of counter-attack that punishes ambition. McLeish knew exactly where it came from.

“The first half, Celtic’s chances come from us giving the ball away at times when we should be more secure on it,” the St Mirren head coach said. “And then even the second goal, that comes from us not being secure on the ball.”

Yang’s night ended with an ice pack strapped to his leg, a brief scare on an otherwise triumphant evening. O’Neill played down any concerns.

“He’s OK,” he said. “If he’d got up a little bit earlier, I think maybe we might have continued with him. But he looked shaken up a bit, so we took him off.”

The bigger worry for Celtic is that they now have to cope without him.

The 24-year-old flies out to Japan for the Asian Games and will miss the midweek trip to St Johnstone, both upcoming clashes with Rangers and the Europa League opener against Ferencvaros. For a player in this kind of form, that is a major hole.

O’Neill did not hide the stakes. “If they don’t win the tournament, then he has to do (national) service. I hope they do win it.”

McLeish sees progress in defeat

For St Mirren, this was a night laced with frustration but also validation.

“I thought there were so many good parts about our play,” McLeish insisted. His side tried to build from the back, stuck to their possession-based approach and refused to retreat even after falling 2-1 behind.

“Throughout the night we carried a threat. Even when we go 2-1 down, we show so much bravery and personality to keep going and keep playing,” he said. “We probably have our strongest spell of the game and create some really good chances, probably unlucky not to take one of them.”

McLeish accepted the risks that come with his philosophy.

“We can’t then turn round and have a pop at the boys for that. We’re asking them to play, we’re asking them to be brave on the ball. We just need to keep doing it better at times, we need to keep building on it.”

The disappointment, he argued, is a sign of where his team now stand.

“It probably shows where we’re at: we’re so disappointed with not coming away with anything.”

Celtic, bruised but victorious, climb away from a dangerous evening with a comeback, a concern, and a clear question: without Yang in the weeks ahead, who delivers the next decisive moment?