Celtic's Narrow Win Over St Johnstone – O'Neill's Warning

Celtic got the win. That was about the only part of the script Martin O’Neill liked.

A 1–0 victory over St Johnstone on Wednesday kept the points ticking over on matchday six of the Scottish Premiership, but the performance left their manager cold. His team controlled the ball, controlled territory, and controlled almost every metric that matters – except the one that should have turned the night into a comfortable stroll.

They finished with 60% possession. They racked up an expected goals figure of 2.22 to St Johnstone’s 0.77. Fifteen shots, nine of them on target. One goal. One narrow win. And a very clear message from the dugout.

Duran Left Out – And Quickly Missed

The biggest surprise came an hour before kick-off. Camilo Durán, Celtic’s relentless Colombian forward and one of the revelations of their season, was missing from the starting XI.

O’Neill had his reasons. Durán had emptied the tank in recent weeks, particularly in the match against St Mirren, and his manager felt the strain was beginning to show. Resting him, on paper, made sense. In reality, it only underlined just how central he has become.

Speaking to Clyde 1 Superscoreboard after the match, O’Neill admitted he had gambled.

Durán, he said, “doesn't start for us. He's just been class, and he looked tired in the game against St Mirren. But I'm not surprised for the amount of things that he does for us, both with the ball, which is terrific, and also the work that he does off it.”

Then came the line that will have echoed in the dressing room.

“He's second only to Daizen (Maeda) in terms of closing players down. So I wanted to try and see if we could do without him, and the answer is probably not.”

The numbers back that up. Durán has played nine games across the Premiership, League Cup and Champions League qualifiers this season and has nine goal contributions: six goals and three assists. He is not just busy. He is decisive.

Against St Mirren on September 5, he set up a goal. Three days earlier, against Aberdeen on September 2, he scored one and created another. He played 83 and 75 minutes in those matches respectively. Against St Johnstone, he was restricted to just 17 minutes off the bench – and Celtic’s laboured attacking display only underlined what they miss when he is not on the pitch from the start.

Durán arrived in Glasgow this summer from Qarabag for a reported €5.5 million fee. That already looks like sharp business. It also means O’Neill now has a selection dilemma of his own making: how often can he afford to leave out a forward who drives his entire attacking press and still expect the same edge?

Wasteful Celtic Face Brutal September

The win over St Johnstone keeps Celtic moving, but the manner of it raises questions with a brutal run of fixtures looming.

Celtic now walk into a defining stretch in September. Two derbies against Rangers frame the month and could shape the mood of their season.

First comes the Scottish League Cup quarterfinal on Sunday, September 13. A cup tie, a knockout night, and no margin for the kind of wastefulness that marked the St Johnstone game. A week later, on September 20, the clubs collide again in the Premiership’s seventh matchday, with league points and bragging rights both on the line.

Between those two Old Firm clashes sits the start of their European campaign. Ferencvaros visit Celtic Park on September 17 for the opening matchday of the UEFA Europa League, another occasion where missed chances are rarely forgiven.

Celtic will have to navigate that sequence without Yang Hyun-jun. The South Korean winger will be away on international duty at the Asian Games, stripping O’Neill of another attacking option at a time when his front line already looks heavily dependent on Durán’s energy and end product.

The table will not remember how scrappy this 1–0 win over St Johnstone felt. But with Rangers and Europe on the horizon, O’Neill’s blunt admission hangs in the air: if Celtic can’t function properly without Camilo Durán now, what happens when the stakes rise and the margin for error disappears?