HOOPS HEIST LEAVES MARK ON BUDDIES

SO CLOSE O'Hara puts brakes on new Bhoy Benjamin Nygren

- BY RYAN McDONALD

SKIPPER Mark O'Hara admitted St Mirren fancied their chances of foiling flag day at Celtic Park - and left gutted it didn't come off.

The Buddies were on course for a hard-fought point at the home of the champions before Luke McCowan's 87th-minute deflected winner.

Stephen Robinson's side were floored at full-time after coming so close to an opening-day shock.

And midfielder O'Hara said: “In terms of effort, we put a lot into that.

“You know you are going to need to concentrate for the full 96-97 minutes and to not get over the line, everybody's really disappointed.

“People outside of ourselves don't really give us a chance going to Celtic Park but we saw it as a good chance to cause an upset on the opening day.