Of Bhoys and Men – A tip of the Hat(trick) to Mr. of Hesselink

By: Cham | January 21st, 2007

St Mirren – 1 (McGinn, 47)
Celtic – 2 (Vennegoor of Hes., 16, 61, 75;
McGeady 27; Miller 82)

Celtic maintained their 17 point league advantage of Rangers with full victory spoils over St Mirren – the Parkhead fireworks provided by none other than Dutch international Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink, who recorded his first Celtic hat-trick Saturday, a goal in 16 to give Hoops an early first half lead, and two more at 61 and 75. Aiden McGeady added a goal of his own, his at 29 to extend the Celtic lead. A clever strike by opposing midfielder Stephen McGinn brought the Saints within a goal, but Celtic’s offensive onslaught proved too much for the visitors’ defense.

Strachan gave hard working striker Craig Beattie a rest in 78, a move proving providential, as Beattie’s replacement Kenny Miller scored just 4 minutes later. This was Miller’s first Scottish Premier goal since Celtic’s away win at Dunfermline back in October. Beattie helped the hat-tricking Dutchman with his third goal, a brilliant cross in 75. Strachan gave Beattie the start at striker ahead of Maciej Zurawski, who had two of the goals in Celtic’s 4-nil rout of Dumbarton in the SFA Cup fixture earlier in January.

St Mirren on paper never posed any significant threat to the league leaders, as Saints are trying to reacquaint themselves with top-flight football. St Mirren won the First Division in 2006, but had not been in the Premier since 2001. Saints sit eleventh in the table, 9 points ahead of Dunfermline and potential relegation. This defeat at Parkhead is the club’s seventh away loss on the season.

Celtic has won 5 of their last 6 home matches for a hosting total of dozen wins and a single draw, only failing to collect full spoils when the Bhoys drew with Dundee United 2 goals each on Boxing Day 2006.

Update: Match highlights, courtesy of Youtube.