Unbeaten Celtic match Lisbon Lions

Celtic 1 St Johnstone 0: Celtic matched the Lisbon Lions’ unbeaten domestic record as Dedryck Boyata scored the only goal of the game against St Johnstone at Parkhead.

Jock Stein’s all-conquering Hoops side of 1967 went 26 games without defeat in Scotland at the start of the season that saw them win which every competition they played in including the European Cup.

With skipper Scott Brown making his 400th appearance for the club, Celtic struggled to break down an organised Saints side until the 73rd minute when defender Boyata headed in a Stuart Armstrong corner.

Celtic moved 22 points clear of Rangers at the top of the Ladbrokes Premiership.

And while any comparisons with Stein’s side has to be put in context of a much-changed Scottish football landscape, nevertheless the achievement in Brendan Rodgers’ first season is commendable and points the way to a possible domestic treble, the Betfred Cup already in the Parkhead trophy room.

Hoops midfielder Nir Bitton sent a free kick from 25 yards just wide of the post in the third minute but Saints raced up the park moments later and won a corner, with skipper Steven Anderson heading Liam Craig’s deep cross just past the post.

Winger Scott Sinclair had the ball in the net with a header in the 10th minute but the assistant linesman ruled that the ball had crossed the bye-line before James Forrest had floated it to the back post.

In the 20th minute, following another Saints corner, Danny Swanson fired in a shot from 16 yards which rebounded off the post with the Celtic defence scrambling the ball clear.

After the break, Celtic were more or less camped inside Sat Johnstone’s half and the breakthrough eventually and perhaps inevitably arrived.

The home side got another corner when Clark parried a Boyata header and when Armstrong crossed into the box again this time the Belgian stopper bulleted a header past the helpless McDiarmid Park number one.

CELTIC:

Gordon, Gamboa (Sviatchenko 83), Simunovic, Boyata, Tierney, Brown, Bitton, Forrest (Roberts 64), Armstrong, Sinclair, Dembele (Griffiths 75).

St JOHNSTONE:

Clark, Watson, Shaughnessy, Anderson, Scobbie, Wotherspoon (Alston 58), Millar, Paton, Craig, Swanson (Cummins 79), Kane (MacLean 79).

Referee:

Andrew Dallas (Scotland).