Celtic come back from goal down to beat St Mirren with late winner

Celtic have picked up all three points after leaving it late to beat St Mirren 2-1 in the Premiership on Wednesday night.

Brendan Rodgers’ men came up against a well organised Saints side and a goalkeeper in top-form as they looked to get back to winning ways after the weekend’s draw at Easter Road.

And they were forced to come back from a goal down after the visitors took an early lead at Celtic Park on a rainy night in the east end of Glasgow.

Connor McMenamin’s seventh minute header was cancelled out by David Turnbull before the former Motherwell midfielder missed a first half penalty.

South Korean forward Hyeongyu Oh then popped up with a late goal in the dying minutes after coming off the bench to claim all three points for the league leaders.

Celtic were without Cameron Carter-Vickers for the game and his presence was missed early on when the visitors took the lead through McMenamin after only seven minutes.

The American’s replacement Nat Phillips couldn’t stop a cross coming in from the right and the Northern Ireland forward headed past Joe Hart to make it 1-0.

Phillips came in as one of three changes for the Hoops from Saturday’s lacklustre draw at Easter Road with James Forrest and David Turnbull also coming in in the place of Bernardo and Daizen Maeda.

The goal came just as hundreds of Celtic supporters were heading to the exits as The Bhoys group staged a protest in support of the Green Brigade who had their season tickets suspended for the game.

St Mirren’s lead lasted just over 10 minutes until Turnbull made it 1-1 when he fired a shot from outside the box into the top corner of Zach Hemming’s net.

Celtic had a chance to go in front when they were awarded a penalty for a handball in the box on the half-hour mark.

Turnbull stepped up but his effort struck the post before Hemming made a great stop to keep out Luis Palma from the rebound and keep the scores level.

Hemming was called into action again to stop an own goal from Gogic and then another shot from Palma as the home side piled on the pressure in their hunt for a second goal before half-time.

But the sides went into the break level.

The first real chance of the second 45 fell to James Forrest, but effort was deflected wide for a corner and that proved to be his last action of the game with him and Palma replaced by Maeda and Yang shortly after.

St Mirren then had their first chance of the half when Phillips was caught out of position as Olusanya pushed forward but Scales managed to get back in time to clear the danger and put it out for a corner.

Yang looked lively and he forced Hemming into another save with a whipping effort from outside the box as the game entered the last 20 minutes.

The Hoops huffed and puffed and struggled to break down a well organised defence who held their line and reduced the hosts to few real chances.

But just as it looked as though they were facing their third consecutive draw in all competitions, Oh latched on to a pass from Holm and smashed it past Hemming to make it 2-1 with seven minutes remaining.

They then had to survive a scare just moments later when St Mirren pushed for the equaliser which was scrambled away by the Celtic defence.