SCOTTISH PREMIER LEAGUE Celtic 7 St Mirren 0: CELTIC MANAGER Gordon Strachan has defended his strikers despite none of them finding the net in Saturday's 7-0 thrashing of St Mirren at Parkhead.
The Glasgow side’s hit-men have borne the brunt of the criticism during the club’s poor recent run of form which saw them win just three Premier League games out of 10 before the visit of St Mirren.
Rangers’ 1-0 win at Hamilton at lunchtime piled pressure on Celtic, but against a dishevelled St Mirren team they equalled their SPL record-winning margin – held jointly with Hibernian – to go within four goals of the Ibrox side at the top of the table with both sides on the 60-point mark.
Remarkably, though, neither Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink nor Scott McDonald, nor substitute strikers Georgios Samaras and Ben Hutchinson, scored as the champions cruised to victory with a Shunsuke Nakamura hat-trick, a Scott Brown double, Marc Crosas’s first goal for the club and a John Potter own goal.
Vennegoor of Hesselink even managed to have a penalty saved by Chris Smith after St Mirren’s Jack Ross had been sent off for a “last-man” foul on McDonald.
Strachan refused to place any importance on the names on the score sheet, stressing the value of his strikers with regards his side’s overall performance.
“All the players were good,” he said, “the movement and passing was good and the centre halves were good with the ball.
“If you look at the chances made when the two strikers were on, then you have to say that Scott and Jan were good. When they were off, we started to get scruffy, so that says a lot about their performances when they were on.”
CELTIC: Boruc, Hinkel, Caldwell, McManus, Naylor (O'Dea 21), Nakamura, Crosas, Scott Brown, McGeady, McDonald (Samaras 69), Vennegoor of Hesselink (Hutchinson 77). Subs not used: Fox, Loovens, Hartley, Flood. Booked: O'Dea.
ST MIRREN: Smith, Ross, Potter, Haining, Camara, Murray (McGinn 60), Dorman (Barron 53), Mason, Brady, Thomson, Mehmet (Dargo 70). Subs not used: Howard, Wyness, Hamilton, Burns. Booked: Thomson, Murray. Sent Off: Ross (28).
Referee: C Allan (Scotland).
