
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain netted a late winner on his Celtic debut to earn a 2-1 William Hill Premiership win at home to Livingston.
The visitors looked set to earn an unlikely point after Robbie Muirhead’s penalty had cancelled out a first-half opener from Marcelo Saracchi.
But with the clock into the second minute of time added on, Oxlade-Chamberlain curled an effort into the far corner to give his team the win that moves them to within six points of leaders Hearts, with a game in hand.
Celtic made six changes from the side that defeated Dundee in the Scottish Cup at the weekend.
In came Kasper Schmeichel, Saracchi, Benjamin Nygren, Sebastian Tounetki, Daizen Maeda and Arne Engels, replacing Viljami Sinisalo, Kieran Tierney, Hyunjun Yang, Reo Hatate, Joel Mvuka and Paulo Bernardo.
Livingston made five changes following their defeat to Falkirk in their last outing and handed starting berths to debutant Cammy Kerr, Danny Wilson, Emmanuel Danso, Scott Pittman and Stevie May.
Out went Connor McLennan, Babacar Fati, Mo Sylla, Joshua Brenet and Lewis Smith, while Samson Lawal was scratched from the line-up just before kick-off, with Ryan McGowan reinstalled.
Celtic started on the front foot and Callum McGregor saw a low shot pushed away by Jerome Prior before Tomas Cvancara should have done better than fire an effort into the goalkeeper’s arms.
Livingston responded with an early effort of their own as May fizzed in a shot that Schmeichel did well to keep out.
Most of the chances, though, were at the other end. Livi goalkeeper Prior did well to keep out Tounetki’s shot and then, barely a minute later, saved from Nygren, while Maeda -following up – could not steer the rebound past Kerr.
McGregor had another drive saved by Prior but, from the resulting corner, Celtic finally made the breakthrough after 15 minutes.
Engels’ corner was headed out to the edge of the box where Saracchi took one touch to control the ball before smashing his shot beyond the goalkeeper for his first Celtic goal.
The home side kept the pressure on and a neat and turn from Nygren was again well saved by Prior before Engels went off injured and was replaced by Hatate.
Liam Scales headed over with Celtic’ first chance of the second half before Livingston drew level.
Hatate brought down Muirhead in the box and the striker made no mistake with the awarded penalty.
Celtic pressed for a winning goal and it came deep into injury time as Oxlade-Chamberlain curled a shot from the edge of the box into the far corner to clinch maximum points.
