Source: FOOTYMAD
Saints hope to be preserved this time
Six goals lost in the two most recent meetings. Can Celtic make it three goals to the good again? Celtic will be without Gary Hooper for today's game against St Johnstone after the striker was ruled out for up to six weeks with an ankle injury. However, Neil Lennon could be able to call on Beram Kayal (hernia), Mark Wilson (groin) and Efrain Juarez (illness) who are are all back in contention following injury, while Scott Brown is pushing for his first start for 10 weeks. St Johnstone manager Derek McInnes will have to make his plans without the suspended duo of Jody Morris and Jamie Adams. Adams serves the second of a two-game ban and Morris also sits out the Boxing Day away game. Murray Davidson should be okay for the trip after he picked up an ankle knock in training. McInnes has urged his players to learn from their past mistakes when they arrive at Parkhead. Saints could be forgiven for being filled with a sense of trepidation after suffering back-to-back defeats against the same opposition in October, losing six goals in the process. Celtic have failed to win in their last three games and McInnes knows now is as good a time as any to make amends for that double-header - but only if they can avoid self-inflicted wounds this time around. He said: "We gave ourselves a mountain to climb in those two games. When you play against Rangers and Celtic, you need a solid start and not to concede an early goal. That's exactly what we did. We slit our own throats. When Celtic played Kilmarnock the other night, Celtic could have been 3-0 or 4-0 up but Kilmarnock rode their luck. Celtic will try to impose themselves on us and we need to defend much better than we did in the previous two games. We need to learn the lessons from those games.''
