Moravcik preys on Saints 1 Edition

• Published in: Scotland on Sunday
• Main Author: Alan Taylor AT CELTIC PARK
• Format: Newspaper Article
• Language: English
• Published: Edinburgh (UK) NLA Media 08.08.1999
• ISSN: 0955-8756

FORM, like fame and fashion, is a fickle thing. Last season, St Johnstone humiliated Celtic on no fewer than three of their four encounters, and in so doing gifted the Premier League to Rangers. On that record most neutrals would at least have thought that the Perth side were in with a shout yesterday at Parkhead but the opening games of the new season suggested otherwise, Saints suffering grievously at home to Hearts while Celtic steam-rollered Aberdeen at Pittodrie last Sunday. And so it proved. Celtic, under smooth-talking, hip-looking John Barnes, are as cool as Coltrane - John, not Robbie -while St Johnstone wreak of stale ideas, second-rate players and a sense of doom. From the outset, Sandy Clark's men were in retreat as Celtic's rampaging troops came at them in waves. Prompted by the darting diminutive figure of Eyal Berkovic, displaying why he is Scotland's most expensive signing, Celtic enjoyed long passages of uninterrupted possession. With Paul Lambert and Morten Wieghorst linking well, Lubomir Moravcik jockeying for position and looking for openings, and Henrik Larsson and Mark Viduka seeming lively upfront it was only a matter of time before St Johnstone's porous defence was breached. It was the signal for Celtic to turn up the heat. Berkovic took command of the midfield, prompting and prodding and running at pace at the leaden St Johnstone back four. When Viduka was fouled 30 yards out, Larsson cracked a shot past the post. It merely prolonged the inevitable, however. A creamy move involving Moravcik, Berkovic and Larsson, ended with Viduka pouncing on the loose ball in a crowded box to backheel it into the net.