St Johnstone 1-0 Celtic: Balodis strikes early as strugglers pull off huge upset

Daniels Balodis' early goal was decisive as St Johnstone stunned Celtic with a 1-0 victory in Perth, in a meeting between the bottom and top clubs in the Scottish Premiership.

Brendan Rodgers' Celtic went into Sunday's game knowing two further victories would seal their fourth straight title win, after Rangers were beaten 2-0 by Hibernian on Saturday.

But they were caught cold in just the fourth minute as Balodis headed home from Graham Carey's wide free-kick, scoring his first goal for St Johnstone.

Stephen Duke-McKenna was required to make a goal-saving challenge to deny Nicolas Kuhn, before he forced Viljami Sinisalo into a smart stop at the other end.

Reo Hatate rattled the post while Jota lashed over the crossbar from a good position as Celtic penned their hosts back in the second half.

When they did manage to hit the target, they found home goalkeeper Andy Fisher in inspired form. He finished the game with nine saves, with the pick of the bunch coming when he denied James Forrest with eight minutes to spare.

While St Johnstone are five points adrift of Dundee at the foot of the table, the victory offers them hope in their bid to stave off relegation ahead of the table splitting next week.

Data debrief: Rare Perth defeat for Bhoys

Celtic have long considered McDiarmid Park a happy hunting ground. Before Saturday's game, they had won their last 15 away games against St Johnstone by an aggregate score of 48-9.

St Johnstone were winless in their last 31 meetings with Celtic overall, drawing four and losing 27 since a 2-1 league win in May 2016.

But they made the most of their chances – and an inspired goalkeeping performance from Fisher – to finally halt that streak, having only created 0.58 expected goals (xG) to Celtic's 2.2.