Celtic 'anything but convincing' before extra time
· Yahoo Sports
Celtic were "anything but convincing" in the first 90 minutes of their Scottish Cup semi-final win despite a blistering start to the contest.
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That's according to the Times' Scottish football correspondent Michael Grant, who was at Hampden to watch Martin O'Neill's side beat St Mirren 6-2 after extra-time.
Celtic led 2-0 at half-time after a first-minute goal from Daizen Maeda and Anthony Ralston's strike on the stroke of half-time.
However, St Mirren striker Mikael Mandron scored twice in the second half to level the contest and force extra-time.
"I thought they actually started pretty well, some of the early play was really quite crisp and fast and the pressing was good - I thought, 'OK, it looks like Celtic are going to be on it today'," Grant said on the BBC's Scottish Football Podcast.
"And then they just kind of fell out the game a little bit and gave St Mirren a foothold in the match.
"They started to kind of turn around a lot and instead of hitting the box, they were kind of turning around and playing safer passes. At times the fans were kind of groaning a little bit. When Ralston scores the goal at end of the first half, you think, well, they're not going to get punished for this.
"It looked at that point like 2-0 was going to be game over, and they would manage it out.
"It didn't go that way because St Mirren came on so strongly - it was anything but convincing over the regulation time.
"They lost two goals and they didn't look like they could handle the physicality of Mandron at the goals and also some of his other play was excellent as well."
Livingston defender Cammy Kerr also felt Celtic were below their best for large spells at Hampden, before their quality shone in extra time.
Kelechi Iheanacho scored twice, while Luke McCowan and Benjamin Nygren also got on the scoresheet as Celtic eventually sealed their place in the final against Dunfermline.
"I've watched them a few times in games where you think there's not much intensity to their play - really lacklustre performances," Kerr said.
"But the quality they've got comes to the top once again. Their top players then come to the top and show how good they can be."