St Johnstone can concentrate on their bid to reach the Scottish Cup final after losing to Celtic on an eventful evening at McDiarmid Park.
There was a bizarre start to the game when, with 20 seconds on the clock, around a dozen footballs were thrown on to the park from the away sections of the stadium-seemingly as part of a protest against the SFA and the 6pm kick-off time.
The game took 10 minutes to catch fire, with Celtic’s Kris Commons firing a free-kick low to keeper Graeme Smith’s near-post.
The Saints goalie did well to push it away, but Commons had another go this time crossing to Samaras, who couldn’t get much purchase on his header.
Commons then threatened to embarrass Smith on 16 minutes when, with the goalie having come for a cross he was never going to reach, he tried a lob from 30 yards that zipped over the bar.
Samaras nearly caught the home side out by finding room to turn and cross deep to the far post however, luckily for the Perth men, there were no takers for what would have been an easy header.
The Hoops were on top, and with 25 minutes gone they came within a whisker of the lead when a Charlie Mulgrew corner from the right was nodded just a few inches over the bar by the in-rushing Daryl Murphy.
On 31 minutes, a pass from Scott Brown sliced open the St Johnstone defence and was collected by Samaras who only had Smith to beat from 10 yards out however, the keeper stood his ground and was able to push the shot away.
The Saints players had every right to complain on 35 minutes when Brines ignored a terrible tackle by Brown on May just outside the Hoops’ box.
Being robbed of a potential goal-scoring opportunity seemed to urge the hosts on and they had their first serious go at Celtic’s goal, with Taylor’s on-target strike being deflected away for a corner.
Taylor then rose high above the Celtic defence on 40 minutes to get his head to a Liam Craig cross, but his attempt went over.
Right on the stroke of half-time, though, Saints lost a goal just as they did against United.
There seemed little real danger as the ball bobbed about at the edge of the home box, but suddenly Brown’s pass deflected off Danny Grainger and as the backtracking May tried to clear, the ball fell kindly for Kayal.
With the outside of his boot he poked the ball goalwards, and although Smith got a hand to it, it wasn’t strong enough to stop it sneaking inside the post.Michael ‘Jordan’ DuberryCeltic’s Joe Ledley and Saints’ Davidson suffered a clash of heads early in the second half and as precaution off went Davidson likely to be a key man on Saturday to be replaced by Millar on 51 minutes.
Saints would have been level on 63 minutes were it not for a brilliant save from Hoops goalie Fraser Forster.
Craig let fly from 25 yards and his strike looked destined to burst the net until Forster put out a hand.
Saints brought Duberry on for Dave MacKay, then Grainger picked up the first booking of the night when he brought down Mark Wilson. He was soon followed into the book by Emilio Izaguirre.
The changes continued, with Celtic introducing Shaun Maloney for Commons and Saints bringing on Arvydas Novikovas to replace Grainger.
Saints went down to 10 men when injured sub Millar had a conversation with assistant manager Tony Docherty then took his shirt off before walking up the tunnel.
With three switches already made, the home side were forced to play the final eight minutes a man down more worryingly, with the Motherwell match in mind, was the nature and extent of Millar’s problem.
There was uproar with five minutes to go when Duberry went down inside the Saints box under a challenge from Samaras.
It looked like a free-kick to the home side and the big defender thought so, handling the ball on the ground in anticipation of the referee’s whistle.
No whistle came, however, and the away supporters howled for a penalty as Duberry after impersonating a basketball player got up and kicked the ball away.
The stunned Celtic players stormed forward looking to wrap the match up, and Brown crashed a shot off the bar that rebounded to Maloney, whose header was acrobatically saved by Smith.
Gartland picked up a late booking for Saints, who now have to put this result behind them and concentrate on their big cup clash.
The match started with a load of balls being thrown on to the pitch, then saw the home side’s Chris Millar walk off injured with all three substitutes used.
The occasion was rounded off by an incredible incident in which Saints defender Michael Duberry handled the ball in the box after being tripped, but referee Iain Brines waved play on.
The Perth men now march on to Hampden and a semi-final date with Motherwell on Saturday with this decent display behind them, although the lack of goals must be a big concern.
No St Johnstone player has scored in the league since Stevie May against Hamilton on February 1 944 minutes of football to be exact while it took the Hoops’ Beram Kayal only 45 minutes of this match to grab the only goal of the game.
The victory puts Neil Lennon’s men five points clear of Rangers in the race for the SPL title, with the Light Blues meeting Aberdeen on Wednesday night.
Saints are more interested in the cup than the league, but they still made the Hoops work for their points.
Manager Derek McInnes said, “The game was secondary to the big one on Saturday and we had one eye on the cup game.
“But I asked the players before the match to make it a committed performance and I think they achieved that.”
He added, “We fought, bit and scratched for everything and made it difficult for Celtic.
“We knew they would have the majority of possession and that was the case but I also thought we restricted them and there wasn’t a lot in the game.”
McInnes said, “We go into the semi-final possibly as underdogs because of Motherwell’s form, but that’s okay, and we are certainly looking forward to it.”‘Bonus’ goalOn Millar’s early departure, McInnes said, “He was feeling his groin slightly and did the right thing to flag it up.
“He came off, but hopefully he will be fine for Saturday.”
As for the handball furore, he said, “We all expected a free-kick to be given for (Georgios) Samaras’ nudge on him, then Dubes thought he had gone off the park. His momentum then made him land on the ball.
“He quickly realised he was still on the park and that the ref had not blown and he moved the ball again. He said to me he then didn’t know what to do.”
Celtic gaffer Neil Lennon was delighted with the outcome and had a humorous take on the Duberry incident.
He said, “I wouldn’t have been too unhappy had we gone in at half-time at 0-0, but the goal was a huge bonus.
“It is a huge result in the context of the season because there was a concern for me coming here.”
On the penalty that got away, Lennon said, “I think he just used the two hands.”
McInnes had stressed in the build-up he would not consider his team to be weakened but rather it would be one capable of testing Celtic.
The line-up certainly had a decent look to it, despite missing seven of the starters against Dundee United at the weekend.
Out went the suspended Steven Anderson, while Duberry, Millar and Peter MacDonald were dropped to the bench.
There were no places for Kevin Moon, Collin Samuel or Danny Invincibile.
Given the chance to grab a semi-final spot were the likes of Graham Gartland, Jamie Adams, Cleveland Taylor, Jordan Robertson and Stevie May.