Celtic debrief: Maeda first foot specialist, O'Riley landmark as supporting star emerges, why Buckie can't be dismissed

Quickfire start floors hosts as Celtic reassert themselves at top with 3-0 win over St Mirren

Celtic's Daizen Maeda celebrates with Matt O'Riley after scoring to make it 1-0 over St Mirren. (Photo by Craig Foy / SNS Group)

The St Mirren Tannoy man had barely finished uttering a rousing rallying call to St Mirren fans at the beginning of a new year – “It’s 5pm, it’s the first game of 2024…this is your town, this is your team..!” - when Celtic’s first-footer specialist Daizen Maeda struck to put the visitors one up.

Six minutes later it was two thanks to Matt O’Riley’s tenth Celtic goal on his 100th appearance. It was an inauspicious start to 2024 for the hosts, who unsurprisingly struggled to recover from such a start. Their task became a hopeless one when striker Olutoysi Olusanya was red carded for a high challenge on Celtic goalkeeper Joe Hart after a VAR review on the stroke of half-time.

It all seemed especially dismaying after the hosts’ 3-0 win over Aberdeen days earlier. As for Celtic, the fans sang “We shall not be moved!” after their side finished the first half of the season in a familiar position at the top of the league. They will take some shifting given they have also been boosted by the return of Reo Hatate – temporarily at least – and Liel Abada. Paulo Bernardo, meanwhile, is quickly becoming instrumental. He provided two assists here after his Old Firm goal on Saturday.

And then there’s Maeda, although he like Hatate is now signing off to appear at the Asian Cup with Japan. There should have been little surprise at the identity of the man who got Celtic up and running at the start of the year, seeing as he seems to do it every year. Well, the last three anyway. Maeda had only joined the club a few weeks before scoring just four minutes into his debut against Hibs on 17 January 2022.

That was Celtic’s first goal of that year. He then scored after five minutes of last year’s 2-2 draw with Rangers and he was again fast off the mark here after scampering onto O’Riley’s intelligent pass inside St Mirren left back Scott Tanser. Maeda took a touch and swept the ball beyond Zach Hemming with his left foot. There were just 54 seconds on the clock.

Whoever Celtic are playing first next year should surely be wise to this pattern. Don’t be surprised to see Maeda marked by two men. Perhaps St Mirren’s attention did switch to Maeda because Celtic were allowed to dance through the centre of their defence just five minutes later. Bernardo controlled a pass from Greg Taylor before swivelling past Alex Gogic and laying off a timely ball for O’Riley, who stepped around Tanser before slipping the ball through Hemming’s legs. It wasn’t a bad way to mark 100 games for Celtic. How many more there will be depends on the accuracy of speculation linking him with a move away, with clubs – including one in Serie A – reportedly interested.

One had sympathy with Olusanya because he seemed genuinely apologetic after catching Hart in the face. He was entitled to go for the ball. However, the actual challenge was reckless and could easily have inflicted serious damage.

Celtic were able to use their last 45 minutes before the winter break as a glorified training session. Hatate made a welcome return off the bench. Abada also got more minutes in. Taylor volleyed past Hemming on the hour mark to make it 3-0 after a delightful clip through from Bernardo.

Hemming kept the scoreline semi-respectable with a series of fine saves as both teams began to consider challenges to come. In Celtic’s case, first up is Buckie Thistle in the Scottish Cup – and they can’t be easily dismissed having won their last game 8-1 at Forrest Mechanics.