Celtic through but Mjallby ruled out for Stuttgart

Celtic 3 St Johnstone 0

The Sweden international defender looked shaky at times on his return to the side after a thigh injury picked up against Dundee United on January 29. His team-mates still managed a less-than-vintage 3-0 victory over St Johnstone in the Tennent’s Scottish Cup fourth round tie at Parkhead.

The result keeps alive their quadruple trophy dream, but Mjallby is unlikely to stay in the side for the return leg in Germany this week.

“I would have thought that Thursday night would still be too early for him,” said O’Neill. “He said himself that he really needed a game which was good. He has not done much training, but the physio assured me that he’s fit. As soon as his first injury cleared up another one came along which knocked him back.

“He hasn’t done much sharp work and he’s been out for some time with different injury problems and he only played about four consecutive games before he got another knock.”

Mjallby was the player who fouled Stuart Noble early on after which Paul Hartley went close for St Johnstone to give Celtic a nervous moment. Debutant Javier Sanchez Broto came to his rescue with a stunning one-handed save and O’Neill admitted that woke his side up.

“I thought we were a bit sluggish in the first-half and the Broto save definitely woke us up,” he said.

“It was a great save and a good shot and I thought we woke up after that. We improved in the second half and we did enough to win the match.”

Celtic took the lead after that courtesy of a John Hartson penalty, before a Jamie Smith goal and another spot-kick from the Welshman secured their fifth-round place.

St Johnstone manager Billy Stark felt the scoreline flattered the Glasgow giants, believing the First Division side could hold their heads high.

The former Celtic player and coach said: “We defended well throughout which you’ve got to do coming here to a place like Parkhead.

“It is always difficult and at 1-0 with 15 minutes to go you are thinking about bringing on another front player to try and get something out of the game.

“We did a lot of things very well even though we were depleted a bit and there was five players who were under 20 in the starting 11.

“Maybe we suffered from something that Premier teams suffer which is a lack of belief, but we had some reasonable moments,” he said. “We caused a few problems with our set-pieces, but I can have no complaints because Celtic deserved to win the game.

“They got two penalties and Hartson did well for their second goal, but the scoreline was a bit harsh on us.”

The scoreline was harsh on the Perth side, but Celtic can look forward to Thursday’s trip to Germany in the knowledge that the four trophies are still a possibility.

CELTIC: Broto (Marshall 82), Mjallby, Laursen, Crainey, Smith, Sylla, Lambert (Maloney 79), Healy, Guppy, Hartson, Fernandez.

ST JOHNSTONE: Cuthbert, Baxter, McClune (Hay 81), Dods, John Robertson, Maxwell, Noble (Panther 30), Hartley, Lovenkrands, Connolly, Parker.

Referee: H Dallas (Scotland).