Ireland international misses penalty but Aberdeen still beat Rangers to keep pace with Celtic

CELTIC FULL-BACK Alistair Johnston came off the bench to break Dundee’s resistance with his second goal in four days.

Johnston netted the opener from close range on the hour mark, three minutes after being called into action, and Arne Engels scored from the spot seven minutes afterwards to keep the champions top of the Scottish Premiership with a 2-0 win.

Aberdeen remain level on 28 points after their 2-1 win over Rangers that sees them nine adrift of both.

Dundee goalkeeper Jon McCracken, who was back in for the injured Trevor Carson, made impressive saves at the start of each half but the visitors generally limited Celtic’s clear-cut chances.

Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers made six changes but two of the players coming in were established defenders Greg Taylor and Cameron Carter-Vickers, who partnered Auston Trusty, while record signing Arne Engels returned amid the ongoing absence of Callum McGregor.

The most significant changes were on the wings as Luis Palma and Yang Hyun-jun were both handed their first league starts of the season.

Most of the first-half goalmouth action came in the opening five minutes.

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Kasper Schmeichel made an excellent one-handed stop from Antonio Portales’ volley before Kyogo Furuhashi missed two excellent chances at the other end. The Japan striker was denied by McCracken from close range after a superb ball from Anthony Ralston, before pulling a shot well wide from eight yards when he looked certain to score.

Celtic were generally restricted to long-range efforts before the break and efforts from Engels, Palma, Luke McCowan and Paulo Bernardo failed to test McCracken.

Portales produced brilliant sliding blocks to deny Engels and Kyogo when Celtic managed to get shooting chances inside the box and Yang could not steer Palma’s cross on target from close range.

Celtic stepped it up immediately after the break. McCracken made a diving save from Palma’s 20-yard curler before producing a wonderful reflex stop to deny Furuhashi. The danger was still very much alive but Ryan Astley blocked from Palma on the line.

Johnston was part of a triple substitution alongside Reo Hatate and Daizen Maeda and he quickly made his mark.

The Canada international, who headed his second goal of the season on Sunday at Motherwell, ran into the box after feeding Yang, and reacted well to stab the South Korean’s deflected cross inside the near post.

Dundee were aggrieved over the penalty award after Mohamad Sylla claimed he had been pulled back by Engels before the Belgian midfielder broke forward and tried to play in Furuhashi.

Portales looked favourite to get the ball but he clipped the Japan striker’s leg and Ross Hardie’s penalty award stood following a VAR check.

Engels stroked his penalty down the middle of McCracken’s goal and Celtic saw out the win without any further drama.

Elsewhere, at Pittodrie, Rangers’ crisis deepened as a 2-1 defeat at Aberdeen left them nine points behind Celtic and Aberdeen at the top.

Dons full-back Nicky Devlin fired in a opener at Pittodrie after 31 minutes before Gers keeper Jack Butland saved a Jamie McGrath penalty six minutes from the interval as Jimmy Thelin’s side dominated.

The lethargic Light Blues responded after the break and wide-man Nedim Bajrami levelled in the 63rd minute with a fine solo goal only for second-half substitute Shayden Morris to fire in from close range 11 minutes later to heap more pressure on Gers boss Philippe Clement.

In contrast, Thelin is now unbeaten in 16 games since taking over as Aberdeen boss in the summer, winning 15 of those.

The Ibrox club is in turmoil with no permanent chairman, chief executive or director of football while on Tuesday it was revealed they made a net loss of £17.2million last season

Belgian boss Clement has to limp on under the weight of negativity which surrounds him, the team and the club. Rangers’ title hopes have surely gone beyond forlorn.