Dundee United manager Jim Goodwin has defended Charlie Mulgrew following criticism over his decision to attend a Celtic event less than 48 hours before a crucial relegation battle at Livingston.

Celtic this week confirmed former Hoops player Mulgrew would be a special guest at their ‘A Night with Scott Brown and Mikael Lustig’ event at the OVO Hydro in Glasgow.

The 37-year-old United defender is set to return to the squad for the cinch Premiership encounter in West Lothian on Saturday after being suspended for last weekend’s defeat by Ross County, which sent Goodwin’s side to the bottom of the table with three matches remaining.

Goodwin sees no problem with Mulgrew’s decision to attend an event that will raise money for the Celtic FC Foundation, the club’s charitable arm.

“I’m a little bit disappointed with the negative reaction to that,” the United boss said.

“I mean, Charlie is going there to support an ex-team-mate, it’s a charitable foundation, and it’s a Thursday night.

“It would be different if it was (Friday) night and he was going to be out until all hours of the morning.

“Charlie is going to go there and do a little bit of a Q&A along with Scott Brown, and he’s not hanging around too long.

“He is going to drive to the event and drive back, there will be no alcohol involved.

“People just need to relax a little bit and understand it’s for a good cause, what Charlie is doing.”

Dundee United boss Jim Goodwin insisted his side are still in a good position in their battle against the drop, despite his side’s 1-0 defeat to St Johnstone at McDiarmid Park.

Saints’ captain Liam Gordon steered home just before half-time after United were unable to clear their lines and the visitors saw Charlie Mulgrew sent off in the second half as they failed to find a leveller.

The defeat ended a run of three successive cinch Premiership victories and Goodwin urged perspective as he praised the attitude of his side.

He said: “If we’d gone down without a fight then I would be very disappointed, but the character is there in the group.

“We are in a decent position if you consider where we were prior to the Hibs game. If I was sitting here still five points adrift, I’d be very concerned. But we’re not.

“We are still level on points with Kilmarnock, albeit Ross County have closed that gap.

“It looks like it will be between the three of us at the bottom and we have great belief in the group.”

St Johnstone manager Steven MacLean, meanwhile, played down the five point gap his side have opened up ahead of the teams below them as he praised the collective effort of his team.

MacLean, who earned a point against Hibs in his first game in interim charge, saw the Saints win at home for the first time since beating Rangers 2-1 in early November.

He said: “It’s massive but it’s only a cushion. I don’t look at other teams. People pointed out last week that teams had won under us but I’m only interested in our club and what we do.

“I think you can see that we’re improving and we’re getting better and if win our games then we’ll be fine.

“We don’t just defend as a back four. We defend from the front and also Liam Gordon has scored the goal so it’s a collective. We don’t work as individuals – we’ve got to be good as a group. I’m delighted for everybody.”

St Johnstone have another home match against Motherwell next week and MacLean – who is relishing his role as interim boss – hopes they can use Saturday’s result to build some momentum and go on a run of wins.

He added: “There’s improvement in this team. I think everybody can see that we’re getting there. We’re working hard in training. You can see slight changes that we’re making and hopefully they’re enjoying it as much as I am but I think we can get better too.

“I want to keep winning. I’m not just about one or two games. I want to go on a run and I want to make this team better like I know they can be.

“I want to concentrate on Motherwell next week. I’ll watch their games and we’ll work in training for Motherwell and try to win the game.”

Celtic made history as they thrashed struggling Dundee United 9-0 in the Scottish Premiership.

Kyogo Furuhashi and Liel Abada both helped themselves to hat-tricks in what was Celtic's largest competitive win on the road in their history.

United had taken just one point from their first four matches, though Celtic boss Ange Postecoglou had warned his team against complacency before kick-off.

"We always go in and expect that they'll be at their best, but what we know is if we're at our best, we're difficult to stop, and that's the things we can control and that's what we’ll be trying to do," he told Sky Sports.

It proved to be the case as the Hoops swept aside their opponents to move back above Rangers at the summit of the league, maintaining their 100 per cent start to the season in the process.

All of Kyogo's goals came in the first half and Celtic went into the interval 4-0 up thanks to Jota.

Abada's trio of strikes came between the 50th and 77th minutes – Josip Juranovic got on the scoresheet in that time, too – with Carl Starfelt applying the finishing touch late on.

"The boys were great, disciplined and focused," Postecoglou said in his post-match interview with Sky Sports.

"It was important we set our stall early and really put them under pressure. In the end, we kind of wore them down, our goals were really good."

Kyogo also provided an assist to go with his hat-trick, and Postecoglou said of the forward: "He's great, he's been great all along, he's such an important part of what we do.

"It's not just his goals, it's the way he harasses the opponents, it's his overall work rate. All our strikers work really hard, but they get the rewards."