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.
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Reo Hatate came close to a Celtic equaliser
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.
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Andy Fisher produced a brilliant save
Rodgers learning which players can cope with expectation
Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers told Sky Sports:
“I want to give credit to St Johnstone because I thought from the first minute their fight was better than ours. They’re obviously desperate for the points, we should be desperate for the points. They made it really difficult for us and we started off too soft.
“We had chances and, in particular the second half, lots of pressure, really good moments, but we were really, really disappointing.
Does it surprise you? “No, it shouldn’t. We’ve got three sides of the ground all expectant but what it’s telling me over the course of this part of the season, expectation vs the underdog and the players who can cope with that.
“How we’ve started games over this period hasn’t been good enough, but that tells me something as a coach.
“The players have been fantastic up until this point of the season. When you’re presented with an opportunity like that, you have to get out of your comfort zone and really show you have that will and want right from the first whistle to get the points. It was only when we were behind that it came about.”
‘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.”
‘We needed heroes’
St Johnstone manager Simo Valakari told Sky Sports:
“We needed the points, we needed a win. We needed to put our heart and soul out there.
“We were very badly hurt by last week and our performance. The boys worked hard, we needed some heroes, Andy Fisher some great saves, our defenders, the strikers, how they defended. Then you give yourself a chance.
“The bottom line is nothing has changed. We got the three points and need to keep fighting.”