Rowan Vine admits his first goal for St Johnstone which gave Saints a shock 2-1 Clydesdale Bank Premier League win over Celtic at McDiarmid Park was made a bit more special by his affinity with the Hoops' Old Firm rivals Rangers.
Kris Commons drove the champions into the lead in the third minute but Gregory Tade levelled in the 18th minute. Celtic were lacklustre all afternoon and in the 80th minute they paid when former QPR striker Vine curled the ball past Fraser Forster to hand the Perth club their first win of the league campaign.
Vine said. "I'm not a huge fan but I do like Rangers and it was nice to score against Celtic. I only came up to play for St Johnstone, there was interest (from Rangers) but I didn't really take it anywhere, I wanted to be here, I didn't speak to them. But to score against Celtic has got to be right up there, it was unbelievable."
He added: "It was a great team effort. Their early goal gave us a massive task but we did show character. It was intimidating at home, they had two stands (full of fans) and for them to get an early goal made it an uphill task but we stuck it out and got our rewards."
Saints boss Steve Lomas paid tribute to his side's character in delivering him what he admitted was the biggest result so far of his managerial career.
He said: "It's just rewards for the four out of the five previous games. We probably deserved more points from those games but we weren't clinical.
"The boys' character is never in question, we've seen it last year and this year is the same. But to go a goal down so early against Celtic, you think 'here we go again', but to get back in it and turn it around was superb, although I expect it from the boys.
"I truly believed it would turn and I am delighted it was against Celtic, that's for sure."
An angry Neil Lennon described his side's performance as "unacceptable" but felt they deserved a penalty in the first half when defender Steven Anderson challenged Commons inside the box.
The Hoops boss said: "It was a penalty and a red card. Why would he go down, he was clean through? Anderson has gone to ground and not made any contact with the ball so it is a penalty but I am not going to say anything because I have a suspension over my head."
Source: PA
