Kilmarnock 0 Celtic 1 LIVE as Matt O’Riley punishes Kilmarnock for passing up golden chance

Kilmarnock have a rare spell of possession and are so unlucky not to be ahead.

Matty Kennedy crosses the ball superbly from the left-hand side and Daniel Armstrong is on the other end of it. He couldn’t have caught it any sweets but it cannons off the crossbar and back into play.

Oh might want to find his shooting boots….

The South Korea international has just blasted the ball miles over the bar again when he had time and space to pick his spot.

Then seconds later, he’s played in by Mikey Johnston, free inside the box and spurs the chance.

Two guilt-edged opportunities for Celtic.

The set piece is floated to the back post as Luis Palma decides against testing Will Dennis. The ball does get cleared for a corner now and Celtic continue to penetrate the Kilmarnock goal.

The home faithful are applauding what they are watching.

Although, they might have their hearts in their mouths because Celtic have just won a free-kick just outside the box. Could Luis Palma have a strike at goal?

Liam Scales picks out Mikey Johnston inside the box, but the Irishman opts to lay it off for Oh to strike.

It’s wild from the Celtic striker, though, as he fires high and wide.

Kyle Vassell may be without a Killie strike partner today. But he’s doing an almighty job ruffling up the Celtic defenders.

He’s chasing down every ball and just needs Matty Kennedy and Daniel Armstrong to get a bit closer to him.

A chance could certainly come his way!

For all Celtic’s dominance, Kilmarnock will take spirit from the opening 18 minutes.

They have stayed structurally secure and also displayed that they can frustrate their visitors when they counter-attack.

Oh clips the ball into the box after a good run in behind the Kilmarnock defence, but it’s strong goalkeeping from Will Dennis, who comes out and collects.

To be fair, Oh just couldn’t wrap his foot around the ball enough.

Daniel Armstrong whips in the set-piece and it’s a decent delivery.

However, Luis Palma is first to get contact and clears the danger.

Matty Kennedy is impeded needlessly by Mikey Johnston, which gives Kilmarnock a free-kick around 10-yards outside the box.

The one way traffic is continuing towards the Kilmarnock goal and it’s taking some fine goalkeeping from Will Dennis to keep them in it.

The deadlock is yet to be broken but Celtic have made a strong start.

It’s fair to say Nat Phillips hasn’t had the best of starts to the game.

The on-loan defender had a tendancy to scoop the ball aimlessly forward and has also misplaced a few passes.

Callum McGregor makes an excellent driving run into the left hand side of the box and his ball across goal is palmed away by Will Dennis, with Mikey Johnston ever-so close to pouncing on the rebound.

You can see their intent!

Matt O’Riley comes close with the games first serious effort on goal. He shoots from the edge of the box and forces Will Dennis into parrying the ball out for a Celtic corner.

That was a decent attempt from the Dane!

Kilmarnock are already showing Celtic that they aren’t going to let them have everything all their own way.

They are pressing as a unit and haven’t been afraid to get physical if required during the opening five minutes.

A long ball forward by Kilmarnock almost has Liam Scales panicking. Daniel Armstrong chases him down at rapid speed and the Celtic centre-back just about manages to scoop the ball out of play.

Celtic have two throw-ins midway through the Kilmarnock half as they immediately try to find a breakthrough.

They are trying to get the ball up towards Oh at every opportunity.

I want my players, not just to hope to win today, but to expect to win. If we do what we know we can do, then it is a game we can win.

Rangers win over Dundee yesterday ensured they reduced Celtic’s Scottish Premiership lead to five points.

However Brendan Rodgers’ men have the opportunity to increase their advantage back to eight points again if they can secure maximum points this afternoon.

Celtic have 13 wins and three draws from their opening 16 games.

[Carter-Vickers] felt a bit of stiffness, he’s played a lot of games. Nat [Phillips] can come in and do a great job… Hopefully [Carter-Vickers] will be available midweek.

Brendan Rodgers has explained why Cameron Carter-Vickers misses out today as he urged his side to show their quality.

He says it was a case of CCV playing a lot of matches since coming back from injury and it was best to take him out as a precuationary measure but reckons the American will be available for Wednesday’s Champions League clash with Feyenoord.

The Hoops boss also adds that he has full faith in deputy Nat Phillips.

Scott Brown and the Sky Sports pundits have been very complimentary of Celtic winger Mikey Johnston but reckon he’s a confidence-driven player after being criticised by Brendan Rodgers for “not doing enough” after the Hibernian game midweek.

Johnston will be desperate to prove his manager wrong by putting in a stellar performance today.

Gary MacKay-Steven has been handed a short-term contract at Kilmarnock after being released by Hearts over the summer and fearing his career was maybe over,

There were definitely times when it was a challenging injury to get over. I needed another operation in May so the summer was all about rehab. The Hearts physio looked after me and continued my programme over the summer. Up to October, I was still at Hearts working with the physio and as soon as I was ready to go the next step to team training, Derek reached out.

I was grateful the manager gave me the opportunity to come and train. It’s gone well and I have enjoyed every day and getting used to the boys, and back playing football.

I played a little bit of a reserve game the other week and been training fully for the past month and it’s all gone smoothly.

I feel strong, I am over my injury. The training was a big step, I hadn’t done that in over a year. Now games are the next step. There’s a lot of games and if I can contribute at all I will be happy to do so.

One huge blow for Celtic is that Cameron Carter-Vickers misses out through injury.

The USA defender has been a rock in the Hoops back-line but isn’t in the squad at all today.

That presents Liverpool loanee Nat Phillips with a rare opportunity to impress along side Liam Scales.

How will they handle the presence of Kilmarnock striker Kyle Vassell? Will this new enforced partnership work?

Greg Taylor has been ever-present for Celtic this season. He has started all 16 Scottish Premiership games and is proving why he was brought to the club from Kilmarnock four years ago.

Today will mark the left-back’s 150th Celtic appearance.

David Watson and Marley Watkins make way from the Killie team that beat Aberdeen on Wednesday.

They are replaced by Liam Polworth and Matthew Kennedy.

Watkins takes his place on the bench, while Watson, who scored a sensational winner midweek, misses out through suspension.

Celtic and Kilmarnock have not drawn any of their last eight matches against eachother.

So, you should expect a conclusive winner once again thisafternnon.

Celtic are ranked first in terms of goals this season – scoring 2.6 on average per game.

Scott Brown believes today’s weather conditions will have a factor today.

The one good thing about today is it’s raining. The speed of the play will be a lot quicker when it’s not a dry pitch. The astro has never been great, it’s never been a thing for myself or probably anyone that’s outside the two clubs that use them.

Celtic line up with Joe Hart in goals, a back four of Alistair Johnston, Nat Phillips, Liam Scales and Greg Taylor.

Tomoki Iwata, Matt O’Riley and Callum McGregor make up the midfield. While Luis Palma and Mikey Johnston will support Hyun-Gyu Oh up front.

Celtic striker Hyun-Gyu Oh has kept his place after impressing in a rare start during the midweek victory over Hibernian.

He netted an impressive double and is now getting his chance ahead of Kyogo Furuhashi up front.

Legendary Celtic captain Scott Brown is among those in attendance at Rugby Park today as he joins James McFadden and Kris Boyd on Sky Sports punditry duty.

Starting XI: Hart, A.Johnston, Phillips, Scales, Taylor, Tomoki, McGregor, O’Riley, M.Johnston, Palma, Oh

Substitutes: Bain, Kyogo, Yang, Turnbull, Nawrocki, Bernabei, Bernardo, Forrest, Ralston

Mikey Johnston is determined to show Brendan Rodgers he has a future at Celtic.

After a loan spell in Portugal last season, many believed Johnston would continue to be an outcast. However injuries to Daizen Maeda and Liel Abada has led to the 24-year-old getting an opportunity to impress in recent weeks.

I am still just trying to prove to people that I can play here. I have been at the club for a while and people are probably saying that I’ve been here for this long and maybe not proven myself – but I have in spells.

It’s very hard to win people over. The pressure is on me and I’m trying to unlock my potential the best I can. I went on loan to a league in Portugal when I wanted to be at Celtic.

I’m trying to take every step I can to fulfil my potential. People act as though I haven’t actually played games for Celtic, but I have played nearly 100 and played in six Cup Finals. Obviously, I need to be playing every single week and that’s what I want to do.

The manager is telling me to take the bull by the horns and, hopefully, I can do that.

Celtic midfielder Matt O’Riley is back among the goals with two from his past two appearances, taking his tally to eight for the season.

He’s been a standout this campaign and will be eager to keep it up.

Joe Hart’s absence from Celtic training on Friday has led to speculation over the Hoops’ goalkeeping position going into today’s clash.

Backup stoppers Benjamin Siegrist and Scott Bain could be ready to pounce and take the gloves if called upon.

And former Dundee United number one Siegrist even posted an eyes emoji on his social media account perhaps alluding to the current situation.

He has made just two appearances for Celtic since joining in summer 2022 on a four-year contract.

Scottish Premiership leaders Celtic have avoided defeat in their opening 16 games of a Premiership campaign for the first time since 2017-18.

And they will sense a real opportunity to continue that formidable run today.

Brendan Rodgers’ side showed signs of their best attacking football during Wednesday’s 4-1 win over Hibernian and are perhaps starting to click into gear.

Kilmarnock picked up an important three points in midweek by defeating Aberdeen by a goal to nil, but they had to be patient as David Watson netted the elusive winner in second half stoppage time.

Killie looked organised throughout and caused the Aberdeen defence concern throughout. They lie in sixth and after knocking Celtic out the Viaplay Cup on August 20, they will be feeling confident that they can complete another scalp on home soil today.

Robbie Deas was part of McInnes’ Killie team that knocked Rodgers’ side out of the Viaplay Cup in August.

Now he’s aiming for a similar success in today’s High Noon shoot-out.

Our home record speaks for itself and the knowledge we’ve already beaten Celtic and Rangers at Rugby Park this season gives us the belief we can go and do it again. We’re hard to beat here and hopefully that will continue this weekend.

As a defender I take a lot of pride in clean sheets – it’s the equivalent of scoring a goal, I suppose. We’re pleased to be doing well but there’s still room for improvement. How good we are at the back is down to the team the manager has built and the competition for places plays a part as well.

Training is great every day and that all comes from the manager. We haven’t just beaten the Old Firm here but we’ve shut them out too. Those two 1-0 wins were massive for us but this will be different. Celtic weren’t doing so well then but they are scoring a lot more now so we must replicate what we did in the last match.

Tomoki Iwata and Oh were handed rare starts against the Hibees, but Rodgers may revert to his usual picks against Derek McInnes’ men. Cameron Carter-Vickers came off against Hibs as a precaution and Rodgers insisted his involvement was dependent on scan results. Record Sport takes a look at the predicted Celtic team.

The High Noon kick-off is a big one for both but who will grab all three points?

We’re about to find out.

Stick with us for all the latest action.