It’s not been a festive and merry atmosphere around McDiarmid Park in recent times.
St Johnstone were once again unable to prevent another defeat in the Scottish Premiership on Wednesday night when they played host to fellow strugglers, Ross County, as Saints were handed a 2-1 loss on home soil.
McDiarmid Park is once again the venue for St Johnstone’s clash with Celtic on Boxing Day but the prospect of festive cheer once again looks unlikely for the miserable hosts having suffered six straight defeats on the trot, leaving them bottom of the division.
Losses to Hibernian, Dundee, Aberdeen, Rangers, Motherwell and Ross County have done the damage in recent weeks and the prospect of a visit from high-flying Celtic on Boxing Day is surely not high on St Johnstone’s Christmas list, especially as Saints have lost their last four meetings on the trot against The Hoops.
Indeed, Celtic are unbeaten in the last 21 meetings against St Johnstone and you have to go as far back as mid-May 2016 for St Johnstone’s last success against their visitors, winning 2-1 at home.
Onto Celtic then, and another two points were dropped in Wednesday night’s 0-0 draw away from home at St Mirren but nevertheless the visitors extended their unbeaten run in the Scottish Premiership to 13 matches.
Celtic find themselves six points adrift of old rivals, Rangers, though, heading into the Boxing Day schedule so Ange Postecoglou’s side will be desperate to return to winning ways at McDiarmid Park as they look to close the gap on the league leaders.
The prospects of another victory appear to be in Celtic’s favour as The Hoops have won 10 of their last 13 matches and having also won six out of their last seven games on their travels as well, Celtic look to be in the driving seat for this upcoming clash.
Four of these six away wins have also seen Celtic win by a 2-goal margin or higher.
With their dominance in previous exchanges against St Johnstone in mind, the visitors look in excellent shape to not only extend their impressive head-to-head record against Saints here, covering the asian handicap line but also grab the all-important three points as well in their bid to close the gap on Rangers.
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