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Celtic striker Kasper Hogh was criticised by manager Martin O’Neill after his profligacy against St Johnstone – but the frontman was defended by an unlikely source. O’Neill was frustrated by his forward players at McDiarmid Park after they created opportunities to see off the Saints more comfortably, only to fail to take their chances. The home goalkeeper had a part to play in that but the Hoops manager wanted his strikers to take more responsibility in front of goal. Hogh had an effort or two kept out and O’Neill was left annoyed by his side’s lack of cutting edge. He said: “I didn’t think it was the fact, for instance, Seb (Tounekti) was getting wide and causing problems. “You can’t just put the ball on a plate for people. They have to make room for themselves to try and score a goal. “Either you whip things across the box, or you try and chip a few things. At the end of it all, you know, I said to the boys in the dressing room that I’m 74 years of age and I think I could have scored a goal at some stage or another. That’s a major exaggeration.” The boss’s comments were an indirect question of Hogh’s progress but former Rangers attacker Kris Boyd sprung to the defence of the £11million Dane. Speaking on Sky Sports, Boyd insisted that the 25-year-old does need better service from the club’s wide players and that the work he does off the ball deserves more credit. Boyd said: “It will be interesting to see what Martin makes of it all once he goes back and watches it again. He’s having a go at Kasper Hogh but we’ve been able to see it and look at the clips. “When you look at Kasper Hogh there’s one thing about him and that’s that he never stops moving, he’s always on the go. Until he’s maybe done it two or three times. Because as soon as a winger goes touch, touch, touch. As a striker you know the space is getting tighter and tighter. “You want that ball early so as soon as you have wingers who are touch, touch, touch then as a striker you go, ‘Do you know what? I’m not moving any more’. And that’s what Martin O’Neill is talking about there – you had to put it on a sixpence for him. “When you take touch, touch, touch then that’s what happens. As a striker you get frustrated. Martin played on the wing. I bet the first thing he was told is to get it out his feet and get that ball into the box. If the striker isn’t there then you can have a go at them. But when your wingers are taking touch, touch, touch… “I don’t see Kasper Hogh as a striker who will link the play. “He takes himself away from it, to give himself as much space to come back across the front of defenders and go and attack it and that’s why I think Camilo Duran will play through the middle on Sunday (against Rangers). I just feel they’re in a far better place with Camilo.”