Celtic stay top of Premiership as Johnston continues scoring streak in win over Dundee

Celtic have defeated Dundee to stay top of the Scottish Premiership.

The league leaders were rarely troubled as they cruised to a 2-0 victory at Celtic Park on Wednesday night after second-half goals from Alistair Johnston and Arne Engels.

Canada right-back Johnston came off the bench to score his third goal in the last four league games after a goalless first-half.

Brendan Rodgers rang the changes for this one with Anthony Ralston, Cameron Carter-Vickers, Greg Taylor, Engels, Yang and Luis Palma and brought into the team from Sunday’s win at Motherwell.

It was all Celtic in the first-half as they dominated possession and Kyogo had two great chances to open the scoring in the opening stages, but he failed to hit the target from close range.

Yang also came close to giving the home side the lead before being thwarted by Jon McCracken as Dundee held on.

Paulo Bernardo was next up and he tried his luck with a curling effort that was just wide of McCracken’s post.

The ball barely left the Dundee half in the first-45, with McCowan and Engels also recording shots at goal, but the away side stayed resolute and the game remained goalless going into the break.

Celtic remained on the front foot in the second-half and McCracken pulled off a spectacular save to deny Kyogo again before Luis Palma’s rebound was blocked when it looked as though the hosts were certain to break the deadlock.

Rodgers then looked to his bench and brought on Daizen Maeda, Reo Hatate and Johnston for Palma, Bernardo and Ralston.

And it was the Canada right-back who continued his mini-scoring streak when he made it 1-0 on the hour mark with his third goal in his last four league games.

Yang collected the ball on the right-hand side before drilling across the face of the goal and Johnston touched it past McCracken to give the Hoops a lead.

And five later the game was all but put to bed when the champions doubled their lead from the penalty spot.

Kyogo was put through on goal before being pulled down by the last man and the referee had no hesitation in pointing to the spot.

Engels stepped up and slotted it past McCracken to make it 2-0 and give Dundee a massive mountain to climb.