Celtic took the points. They didn’t take the chance to convince their manager.
A 1–0 win over St Johnstone on Wednesday keeps the Hoops moving in the Scottish Premiership, but the performance left Martin O’Neill cold. His team controlled almost everything that mattered on the stats sheet – 60% possession, an expected goals figure of 2.22 to St Johnstone’s 0.77, 15 shots and 9 on target – yet they crossed the line with only a single goal and a manager distinctly unimpressed.
The scoreboard said routine. The display did not.
A Big Call on Duran – and a Blunt Lesson
The team sheet delivered the first jolt of the night. Camilo Duran, the Colombian forward who has rapidly become central to Celtic’s attacking identity, started on the bench.
O’Neill had his reasons, and he didn’t hide from them. Speaking to Clyde 1 Superscoreboard after the match, he admitted the decision was as much an experiment as it was rotation – and that it had backfired.
“(Camilo) Durán doesn't start for us. He's just been class, and he looked tired in the game against St Mirren,” O’Neill said. “But I'm not surprised for the amount of things that he does for us, both with the ball, which is terrific, and also the work that he does off it.
“He's second only to Daizen (Maeda) in terms of closing players down. So I wanted to try and see if we could do without him, and the answer is probably not.”
That last line will echo around the dressing room. Celtic won, but their manager walked away convinced his side are nowhere near the same animal without Duran snarling at the front.
Numbers That Tell a Different Story
The frustration is easy to understand. Celtic had the ball, they had territory, they had chances. The pressure came in waves, yet the killer touch deserted them.
With 15 attempts and 9 on target, a more ruthless side would have buried St Johnstone long before the final whistle. Instead, Celtic laboured, snatched at openings, and allowed the game to drift into something far more nervy than it ever needed to be.
The contrast with Duran’s season so far is stark. The Colombian has matched his appearances with direct goal contributions: 9 games, 9 returns. Six goals, three assists across the Premiership, League Cup and Champions League qualifiers – elite productivity from a summer signing still settling into Scottish football.
His recent league outings underline his influence. Against St Mirren on September 5, he laid on an assist in an 83–minute shift. Three days earlier, away to Aberdeen on September 2, he produced a goal and an assist in 75 minutes. Against St Johnstone, he was restricted to just 17 minutes, asked to rescue the rhythm more than the result.
O’Neill’s experiment showed him exactly what Celtic lose when Duran doesn’t start. Energy. Aggression. A focal point who presses like a winger and finishes like a No. 9.
No wonder the manager’s praise sounded so pointed. It doubled as a warning to the rest of his forwards: standards have been set, and they are high.
From Qarabag to Crucial
Duran’s impact is all the more striking when you remember where he came from. Celtic paid around €5.5 million to bring him in from Qarabag in the summer, a fee that raised eyebrows but now looks increasingly shrewd.
He has given O’Neill goals, yes, but also something less tangible and just as valuable – a trigger for the press, a tone-setter. His work without the ball, highlighted by O’Neill as second only to Daizen Maeda, has become part of Celtic’s identity under the Irishman.
The one night Celtic tried to live without that edge, they stumbled through a flat, disjointed attacking performance. The lesson felt immediate.
Derby Tests and a Growing Dependence
There is no time to dwell. September is about to test Celtic’s depth and nerve.
Rangers await twice in the space of a week – first in the Scottish League Cup quarter-final on Sunday, September 13, then again in the Premiership on September 20. Sandwiched between those Old Firm clashes is the Europa League opener at home to Ferencvaros on September 17.
Three high-stakes fixtures. Three different competitions. One brutal schedule.
Celtic will also be without Yang Hyun-jun, who departs to represent South Korea at the Asian Games. His absence strips O’Neill of another attacking option just as the calendar tightens and the margins shrink.
That makes Duran’s role even more central. The manager has already admitted he “probably” cannot do without him. The coming weeks may turn that “probably” into something stronger.
Celtic beat St Johnstone. They banked the points. But with Rangers looming and Europe calling, O’Neill left the pitch thinking less about the win and more about a single, unavoidable truth: his team now lives at the tempo set by Camilo Duran.
