Had Rangers not fallen so far adrift at the top of the Scottish Premiership table, Celtic’s shock 1-0 defeat at basement-dwelling St Johnstone might have resonated a little louder on the blue side of Glasgow.
As it is, after Barry Ferguson was left raging by Rangers’ latest Ibrox defeat at the hands of Hibernian one day earlier, all Daniels Balodis’ fourth-minute header achieves, in the grand scheme of things, is to delay Celtic’s celebrations for another week or so.
The gap at the summit remains thirteen. Rangers sitting almost perfectly equidistant between Celtic in first and David Gray’s seemingly-unbeatable Hibs in third.
Yet, while the idea of Rangers mocking a rare Celtic defeat brings to mind the image of a man with a broken leg laughing at another for twisting his ankle, the sight of Jason Holt wrestling Reo Hatate and Callum McGregor onto the periphery at least gave a gloomy fanbase something to smile about on another wasted weekend.
Former Rangers man Jason Holt helps St Johnstone stun Celtic
Holt spoke a few days earlier about the need for St Johnstone to turn decent recent performances into decent results before it’s too late.
With Dundee winning on Saturday, another defeat would have left The Saints seven points adrift at the bottom of the table.
So the most unexpected but highly-deserved victories over the champions-elect not only bust a few accumulators, it also makes a dramatic escape from the relegation zone feel that little bit more possible.
Holt, who spent five years as a Rangers player between 2015 and 2020 while even captaining the club on occasions, rolled back the years with a performance of typical grit and discipline in the heart of a steely St Johnstone midfield.
As well as completing 87 per cent of his attempted passes – comfortably the best record of any Saints starter – Holt also made the second-most tackles and the third-most interceptions as head coach Simo Valakari was left hailing a team full of ‘heroes’ on an afternoon which may yet prove to be a turning point at the bottom of the standings, if not the top.
The usually imperious Callum McGregor was knocked off his beat by Valakari’s rhythm-breaking enforcers. As for Hatate, Holt’s tenacious tracking ensured that the man who looked like Celtic’s best bet for an equaliser would go hungry at a disbelieving McDiarmid Park.
“St Johnstone grafted hard,” The Times write in their post-match debrief. “Mackenzie Kirk would defend from the front, the striker dropping to stay close to Callum McGregor. Jason Holt was on Reo Hatate and Victor Griffith on Arne Engels, the trio doing enough to frustrate and slow Celtic’s midfield.
“They pulled off the biggest surprise of the Premiership season so far.
“It had been 20 years since Celtic were last top of the league and lost to the team at the bottom of it, but St Johnstone gave them an early bloody nose and they could never undo the wound.”
Simo Valakari dreaming of survival as Rangers’ season peters out
While blood was left streaming from Celtic nostrils, it was Balodis who delivered the sucker punch. Holt, however, ensured that there would be no rising back off the canvas for Brendan Rodgers’ boys.
At least one player with Rangers on his CV can wake up on Monday morning happy with his weekend’s work.
David Gray was understandably delighted with his Hibs stars as the Edinburgh outfit ended their seven-year wait for a win at Ibrox. If that was a shock – or perhaps not, considering Rangers’ recent home form – then St Johnstone defeating Celtic was a scoreline even Nostradamus would have struggled to predict.
“It was fun. A real fun experience! I am happy for the players because it’s not been easy for them. I love to see them smiling, I hate it when they are unhappy because they’ve lost,” a beaming Valakari said at full-time.
“I want to see smiles. We believe in what we’re doing. Can we stay up? Of course! The fight continues.”
Arguably no one epitomises that fighting spirit more than Jason Holt.
