St Johnstone gave themselves a cup-final boost with a 3-3 draw against champions Celtic at McDiarmid Park last night.
Two late goals by the Saints earned them a point after Celtic had looked like cruising to victory.
Clancy gave Saints the lead in nine minutes but Commons levelled with a 53rd minute penalty. Pukki made it 2-1 and Van Dijk made it 3-1 before the champions were stunned by a late Saints comeback.
In 84 minutes Celtic captain’s namesake Scott Brown made it 3-2 and then O’Halloran scored just four minutes from time to give the hosts an unlikey share and plenty of confidence going into Saturday week’s cup final against Dundee United.
Celtic manager Neil Lennon and his St Johnstone counterpart Tommy Wright both rang the changes for their Scottish Premiership match at Perth.
Stand-in keeper Lukasz Zaluska and forwards Teemu Pukki, Amido Balde and Derk Boerrigter were handed rare starts for the champions, who left several of their big guns on the bench including skipper Scott Brown, Kris Commons and Anthony Stokes.
With one eye on the upcoming Scottish Cup final against Dundee United, Wright utilised his squad but kept top scorer Stevie May in the starting line-up.
ST JOHNSTONE – Mannus, Miller, Anderson, Wright, Clancy, Croft, Brown, Cregg, McDonald, O’Halloran, May. Subs: Millar, Wotherspoon, Hasselbaink, Dunne, Banks, Iwelumo, Gilchrist.
CELTIC – Zaluska, Lustig, Ambrose, van Dijk, Mulgrew, Matthews, Kayal, Johansen, Boerrigter, Balde, Pukki. Subs: Forster, Brown, Stokes, Commons, Mouyokolo, Griffiths, Henderson.
Referee – Steven McLean.