Celtic sealed a place in the Scottish Cup final thanks to an extra-time demolition as they smashed St Mirren 6-2 at Hampden Park on Sunday afternoon.
Daizen Maeda put Celtic ahead in bizarre circumstances less than a minute into the clash, when St Mirren goalkeeper Ryan Mullen fired his clearance against the Japanese international and saw it trickle over the line. Anthony Ralston blasted home a stunning second deep into first-half stoppage time to double the lad.
St Mirren refused to lie down though, and dragged themselves back into the game on 53 minutes when Mikael Mandron headed home superbly from Declan John’s teasing left-wing cross. With the game edging towards the final minutes, Mandron forced the game into extra-time, firing home with aplomb after latching onto Jake Young’s knock on.
However, the Buddies were blown apart in the first-half of extra time as the goals rained in at the national stadium, with substitute Kelechi Iheanacho bagging a quickfire brace (96, 101), Luke McCowan (98), and Benjamin Nygren (102) sealed a remarkable win for Celtic.
Here’s how The Scotsman rated the performance of each player as Celtic beat St Mirren 6-2 at Hampden:
1. Viljami Sinisalo (Celtic) - 6
A strange afternoon for the Finland international. Made some excellent saves from Donnelly and Mandron in each half, but almost had a comedic goalkeeping error of his own when his clearance was closed down by Phillips. Had some anxious moments. | SNS Group
2. Ryan Mullen (St Mirren) - 2
What a disaster of a Hampden debut for the St Mirren stopper. Will be having nightmares about the opening goal, and injured himself shortly afterwards. | SNS Group
3. Anthony Ralston (Celtic) - 7
Defended well after being drafted in from the cold due to injuries in recent weeks. Capped off a solid performance with a stunning second goal. | SNS Group
4. Mark O'Hara (St Mirren) - 5
Looked uncomfortable at right-wing back, but stuck to the task until his side were blown apart in extra time. | PA