Celtic suffer shock defeat at rock-bottom St Johnstone

Celtic still need two wins to secure the Scottish Premiership title after suffering a shock 1-0 defeat at rock-bottom St Johnstone.

Daniels Balodis stunned the champions-elect with a fourth-minute header from Graham Carey’s delicious free-kick delivery to inflict only a fourth loss in the league on Brendan Rodgers’ side.

Rangers’ 2-0 defeat at home to Hibernian on Saturday left Celtic knowing they could have wrapped the title up at home to Kilmarnock next weekend before the fixture split had they beaten St Johnstone – but they failed to score for the third time in the league this season.

St Johnstone goalkeeper Andy Fisher was superb in keeping Celtic out while Stephen Duke-McKenna made a crucial interception to stop Nicolas Kuhn from equalising in the first half.

Daizen Maeda was denied by Fisher from a tight angle after latching onto a loose back pass in the opening period although Celtic goalkeeper Viljami Sinisalo did have to save from a curling Duke-McKenna shot.

Rodgers brought on Hyun-Jun Yang and Greg Taylor at half time which helped the visitors dominate the second period.

Reo Hatate smashed an effort off the left post before blazing over when well-positioned in the box before Fisher took centre stage late on.

The goalkeeper made a brilliant, sprawling save down to his right to parry substitute James Forrest’s close-range shot and then denied Luke McCowan in injury time.

St Johnstone are now six points adrift of safety while Celtic remain 13 points clear of Rangers.

‘We have to win next week to make this count’

St Johnstone goalkeeper and Player of the Match Andy Fisher told Sky Sports:

“It’s massive but if we go into next week and lose, it counts for nothing. We need to keep out heads down and focus on the next game.

“The lads in front of me were excellent the whole game. I can make saves in these games and I think I did that. Hopefully I showed what I can do.”

What’s coming up in the Scottish Premiership?