Kayal sends Celtic five clear

St Johnstone 0 Celtic 1: Beram Kayal's first Celtic goal was enough to beat St Johnstone at McDiarmid Park and take the Hoops five points clear of Rangers at the top of the Clydesdale Bank Premier League.

The Hoops midfielder, signed from Maccabi Haifa last summer, struck in added time in the first half to give Neil Lennon's side a deserved interval lead which they never looked like losing.

Saints survived a controversial penalty claim near the end when substitute Michael Duberry appeared to handle the ball twice in the box as he lay on the ground but referee Iain Brines took no action.

Had the home side somehow managed to grab an equaliser no doubt more would have been made of that decision but as it was Celtic saw the game out and put pressure on to the champions who play Aberdeen at Pittodrie on Wednesday night.

Celtic boss Lennon, who returned to the dugout for the first time following a five-match touchline ban, took the acclaim of the travelling support at the end realising his side are again in the driving seat in the title race.

Celtic boss Neil Lennon was glad to make a winning return to the touchline after completing a five-game ban.

“It was a game I was concerned about in the circumstances but I thought we went about our business well,” he said. “With better finishing it could have been comfortable.”

Lennon praised the performance of Kayal, adding: “He’s a wonderful player, he’s had a wonderful season so far. He was feeling tired before the game but there was no way we were going to leave him out. It was a good team performance, there were no failures.

“It was always a little worrying at 1-0, anything can happen especially with the pitch as bobbly as it was, but Fraser (Forster) was comfortable, we were comfortable defensively.”

Striker Gary Hooper did not start after his injury worries but Lennon said he expected him to return for the weekend’s match with Aberdeen.

“He should be (fine). He was sore today so we decided not to take that chance,” he said. “Hopefully he’ll be fit for Sunday.”

St Johnstone boss Derek McInnes was happy with the commitment of his side, which was largely a second-string selection ahead of their semi-final with Motherwell on Saturday.

“I asked the players for a committed performance to stop a good Celtic team from enjoying the game,” he said. “They did that, but we just didn’t carry as much threat as we wanted. It was disappointing that 10 seconds from half-time to concede.

“But there were a lot of good performances. To a man they worked very, very hard.”