Wright hails his team

“WE’RE SO solid defensively and we’ve got boys who want to go and head the ball so you feel so comfortable,” added Swanson.

“We’ve got every chance of winning and I thought we deserved that.”

Saints boss Tommy Wright was delighted to see his side move back into the Premiership’s top half and challenged his players to stay there.

“I think it would be a magnificent achievement if we could manage a top six finish,” he said.

“For a club our size to finish in the top six four seasons running would be a magnificent achievement, but we haven’t done it yet and we have to keep working towards that.

“We asked them to be brave in possession, we talked about finding the right balance between defending and attacking before the game and I think nobody can deny we deserved the victory.

“When you come to Parkhead you need a team performance to get anything and I think we got that.”

Celtic manager Ronny Deila felt his side looked jaded after a tough period of matches.

“It’s not good to f ind excuses — the performance was not good enough,” he said.

“It has been a hard programme with three tough matches, and when there is a lack of energy there was not the determination to get the ball into the net.

“Every time we play in Scotland we are favourites and we should win, but there was a lack of fight and in the end we got too open.” ST JOHNSTONE breathed new life into the Scottish Premiership title race as they stunned league leaders Celtic at Parkhead last night.

The Hoops had the chance to move nine points clear at the summit, but a stunning Danny Swanson volley was enough to separate the sides and move the Perth men back into the top half of the table at Dundee’s expense.

And while much will no doubt be made of the home team’s lacklustre showing, Saints fully merited their three points after a thoroughly professional away display.

Celtic made two changes from the team that beat Aberdeen at the weekend as Kris Commons dropped out of the first XI through injury and Nir Bitton found himself on the bench, with former Dundee United star Stuart Armstrong and Anthony Stokes coming into the starting line-up.

Saints, meanwhile, probably would have been without defender Frazer Wright due to the timing of the game anyway but saw him definitely ruled out thanks to team-mate Steven Anderson’s stray boot on Saturday.

Wright’s broken nose saw him replaced by Tam Scobbie in the heart of the visiting defence, while Swanson started ahead of striker Chris Kane.

Starting solidly was always going to be crucial at Celtic Park for the visitors if they had any hope of recording their first victory in Glasgow’s east end since 2011, but they were almost undone within three minutes.

Scott Brown laid the ball off toArmstrong for a first attempt on goal which was cleared, before Stokes found space down the left in the next attacking wave and curled the ball just beyondAlan Mannus’s left-hand post.

However, Saints certainly didn’t look overawed and Steven MacLean had a decent sight of goal 25 yards out after a slip by defender Adam Matthews, although his miscue went well off target in the end.

Celtic then went through a period of prodding and probing without finding too much joy, although a moment of magic

Picture: SNS. Ronny Deila.