Ange Postecoglou watched his Celtic side struggle to get their game going during an awful first 45 minutes at the SIMSA Stadium on Sunday afternoon in Paisley. After going one down early doors in the match – thanks to another highly contentious decision and interpretation of the handball rule – his team were toiling in their attempts to bring down a stoic Saints side.
Just before the interval though, Kyogo Furuhashi nipped ahead of Buddies centre-back, Charles Dunne, after he mistakenly misjudged the time he had on the ball with a poor touch to boot, subsequently allowing the Japanese international in on goal. However, Dunne brought the Celtic player down to the ground with a pull on his body and saw red for his actions.
This allowed Celtic to apply severe pressure on Stepehen Robinson’s men in the second half and we just kept hammering away until we found our way to goal. After Jota’s equaliser which was full of steely determination and desire to get there ahead of the St Mirren player defending the goalmouth, Ally Johnston put us 2-1 up not long after, rising to meet a brilliant cross from Aaron Mooy.
After that, the Bhoys came into their own, and with a peppering of changes, reinforced their dominance on the only team to beat us this season – claiming a 5-1 victory in the end. Liel Abada changed the game when he was introduced and grabbed the third, followed by a Matt O’Riley finish and then finally, a Hyeongyu Oh penalty sealed the deal.
The manager knew we had to dig deep for this one and reckons that the full squad should be commended for the way they emphatically dispensed of the Paisley side, following their loss at the very same venue way back in September. Speaking to Celtic TV, he said: “We knew it would be a tough challenge for us here and after the penalty decision we had to maintain our composure and discipline and I thought the lads did that.
“We didn’t get too carried away with the state of the game at that time and for the most part, we handled it well. Even when they went down to 10 men I thought we maintained our composure again and I thought the guys coming on gave us that extra bit of energy and drive.”
Postecoglou as effusive in his praising of both Leil Abada and Aaron Mooy for the part they played in the victory. He said: “He was great, all the boys that came on were fantastic in making an impact on the game and Liel was certainly one of those.The way the game was set up I thought it was going to suit him because he would have had a bit of space to beat people and he’s a really hard player to stop and he’s always a goal threat.
“Credit to him because he’s a young man that’s played a lot of football over the past two years and through that time he’s been consistent in making an impact on the game and he keeps improving. He’s been great for quite a while now (Mooy) and he’s consistently a player that stays calm in these conditions and he’s very clear-headed in what he needs to do and he’s been great for us.”
After watching from the sidelines as the squad he has assembled hit 250 goals under his tenure in less than 100 games in the dugout, he added: “It highlights our approach and I said from the start we want to be a team that’s relentless and that’s what the boys are showing. Today, it would have been easy at 3-1 to cruise the rest of the game and see it out but it’s never in the mind of these guys and irrespective of the balance of the game they will keep going until the final minute and that’s why we’re scoring so many goals.
“I struggle with my own fitness, but in terms of the boys, you can see from training every day that they don’t let the standards slip. We know we’ve got a big game coming up and we need everyone involved in the squad this week to get the job done with two difficult games against Hearts in two different competitions. We’ve got guys that are ready to go and ready to contribute and we will use them all.”
Paul Gillespie
