St Johnstone’s special Scottish Youth Cup run ended in front of more than 1000 supporters at McDiarmid Park on Friday night.
The Perth club’s under-18s had impressed en route to this semi-final fixture and the large crowd reflected the excitement created.
Celtic, however, would prove too strong and ran out comfortable 5-0 winners courtesy of Lewis Dobbie’s opener, a double from Daniel Cummings, Caleb Goldie fourth and Jude Bonnar's stoppage time fifth.
Saints had been led out the tunnel by local lad and captain Scott Bright, who operates at left-back. He and his defensive mates were required to be on their toes from the first whistle.
Dobbie had looked sharp from the off on the left flank and had gone close on eight minutes after cutting inside with purpose.
Celtic, who were pinging the ball around nicely, soon found the net but Saints were saved by the offside flag. Benny-Jackson Luyeye had finished.
As the half progressed Dobbie continued to threaten and he got his reward when opening the scoring with a deflected strike in the 26th minute.
Perth goalkeeper Kyle Thomson, just back from Scotland U16 duty, was then called into action to pull off a smart save to deny Cummings from close range.
The visitors were knocking on the door for a second but determined defending from Bright, Bayley Klimionek, Joe Ellison and Filipe Franczak ensured there remained the possibility of a revival after the break.
It was, however, pretty much game over in the 48th minute when Cummings found space in the box to nod in Dobbie’s cross from the left.
If that wasn’t curtains for Saints, it was with 55 minutes on the clock. Cummings, again, wheeled off in celebration this time thanks to a fierce strike which hit the crossbar on its way in.
Saints weren’t throwing in the towel but Goldie guided over the line from close range to make it four as the game started to reach its latter stages and then Bonnar drilled in a stoppage time fifth.
A terrific crowd of 1008 had pitched up to show their support.
