![\"St](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/34966ef8-c69b-45db-b452-733d38c5499b.jpg\")
<\/p>\nJonah Ayunga netted a second-half brace \u2013 doubling his goal tally for the season \u2013 to take the trophy back to Paisley for the first time since 2013.<\/p>\n
Saints, who had Republic of Ireland midfielder Killian Phillips in their line-up, had opened the scoring through Marcus Fraser after 90 seconds before Reo Hatate levelled during a thrilling start to the final.<\/p>\n
But Celtic dropped off after getting level and Ayunga netted from a cross and a counter-attack inside 13 minutes to cement his hero status with the Buddies.<\/p>\n
Nancy became the first Celtic manager to lose his opening two games after defeats to Hearts and Roma and an unwanted hat-trick will pile further pressure on the Celtic board.<\/p>\n
In contrast, St Mirren manager Stephen Robinson has now added the club\u2019s fifth major trophy to three consecutive top-six finishes.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
St Mirren’s Jonah Ayunga celebrates scoring the winning goal. Photo: Reuters\/Craig Brough<\/p>\n
Nancy stuck with his preferred formation but made some tweaks. Right-back Anthony Ralston started in the back three after the Frenchman had gone with three left-sided players in his opening games.<\/p>\n
That meant Kieran Tierney moved into the wing-back role, with Sebastian Tounekti moving to the right. Kelechi Iheanacho came in up front and Daizen Maeda provided support as one of two attacking midfielders.<\/p>\n
St Mirren lost top goal-scorer Mikael Mandron from their starting line-up because of an overnight illness.<\/p>\n
Dan Nlundulu came in and his deflected shot led to the corner which earned St Mirren the lead. Former Celtic defender Fraser easily saw off the attentions of Hatate to head Keanu Baccus\u2019 delivery in off a post.<\/p>\n
Celtic responded with a series of dangerous balls into the box from the left from Ireland international Liam Scales and Tierney.<\/p>\n
Shamal George made an excellent stop from Iheanacho\u2019s header.<\/p>\n
Some erratic defending was giving the St Mirren attackers some half chances and Nlundulu swept a good opportunity past the near post after positive play from Declan John.<\/p>\n
Celtic levelled midway through the half when Hatate ran round the back of the Saints defence to meet Tierney\u2019s delivery and volley inside the far post.<\/p>\n
Nancy lost Iheanacho to a hamstring injury in the 35th minute as another Irishman, Johnny Kenny came on.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
St Mirren lift the trophy after the final whistle of the League Cup Cup final at Hampden Park. Photo: Jane Barlow\/PA Wire.<\/p>\n
The frenetic pace of the game slowed towards half-time, which saw Nlundulu and Auston Trusty booked by referee Kevin Clancy following a clash after the whistle.<\/p>\n
St Mirren made a bright start to the second half with some dangerous crosses just out of reach of attacking players.<\/p>\n
But they got it just right in the 64th minute when midfielder Alex Gogic flicked a brilliant first-time cross over the Celtic defence and on to the head of Ayunga, who nodded it over the advancing Kasper Schmeichel.<\/p>\n
The striker doubled his tally after 76 minutes. Miguel Freckleton\u2019s long ball caught Celtic completely exposed on the counter-attack as John raced clear. The wing-back checked back after being caught up and played the perfect pass to Ayunga, who beat Schmeichel with a first-time effort.<\/p>\n
George made an excellent stop from substitute Colby Donovan\u2019s long-range drive, but a Celtic comeback, amid sporadic anti-board chants, never really looked likely.<\/p>\n
Nancy\u2019s side invited counter-attacks with some sloppy passes and Saints substitute Evan Mooney forced a save from Schmeichel before George ensured there would be no late drama as he parried Kenny\u2019s 20-yard strike.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jonah Ayunga netted a second-half brace \u2013 doubling his goal tally for the season \u2013 to take the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":191939,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[5082,42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-191938","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-celtic-fc","9":"tag-headlines","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-top-news","12":"tag-top-stories","13":"tag-topnews","14":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191938\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}