Sam Johnstone's Impressive Celtic Debut Performance

Sam Johnstone’s grin said it all.

Under the McDiarmid Park lights, the Celtic debutant walked off with a clean sheet, three big saves and, perhaps, a derby dilemma for his manager.

A surprise name, a sharp performance

His name on the teamsheet raised eyebrows. Viljami Sinisalo, solid so far this season, dropped out. In came a 33-year-old Wolves loanee who had not started a league game in 21 months.

Any rust never showed.

Johnstone’s handling was tidy, his positioning assured, his presence obvious. He faced three efforts from inside the box and repelled them all. The standout moment came when Joel Cotterill caught a first-time strike sweetly and seemed certain to score. Johnstone exploded upwards, tipping the ball over with a brilliant reflex stop that kept Celtic from falling behind.

He dealt with his only aerial duel, punched one dangerous ball clear, and used the ball with composure: 31 successful passes from 38 attempted, five of them driven into the final third to relieve pressure and start attacks. Cramp nipped at him late on, a reminder of how long it has been since he last played this kind of intense football, but he saw it out.

By the final whistle, Celtic had ground out a 1-0 win at St Johnstone and preserved their perfect league start. Johnstone had his moment.

“Amazing. What a feeling,” he said afterwards, still riding the adrenaline. “It’s been a rollercoaster week, coming in and getting to know the lads and staff, training and watching a couple of games. So to finally get on the pitch and get a win, clean sheet, play in front of the fans, it was an unbelievable feeling. I’m really happy.”

O’Neill’s derby decision

If this was an audition, Martin O’Neill watched it closely.

The Celtic manager did not hide his admiration for that key save from Cotterill.

“The save was fantastic, a really, really brilliant reaction save,” O’Neill said. “He’s a fine goalkeeper and it’s just a matter of him getting up to speed with things. Sinisalo’s done very, very well indeed, and while I [ideally] do not want to use games like this, I have to find out about a number of players.

“We’ll see what happens on Sunday but we’ve got loads and loads of games and it is really nice to know that I have actually two really decent goalkeepers.”

That is the crux now. Ibrox awaits on Sunday. League Cup quarter-final. Rangers. The kind of occasion where one wrong call with the gloves can define a week, sometimes a season.

‘Two good goalkeepers’ – but who starts at Ibrox?

From the stands and the studio, the debate started almost as soon as Johnstone walked down the tunnel.

Former Celtic goalkeeper Pat Bonner saw enough to know O’Neill has a genuine call to make.

“Johnstone looked commanding and had that terrific reflex save. He did good, he’ll be under more pressure in other games,” Bonner told BBC Sportsound. “It will be interesting to see what the manager does now – does he keep him in or go with Sinisalo? Celtic have two good goalkeepers at the moment.”

Two strong options. One huge game.

Johnstone has announced himself. Sinisalo has already built credit. Now O’Neill must decide whose name he writes on that Ibrox teamsheet.