Brendan Rodgers spoke to the media after Celtic suffered a surprising 1-0 defeat at the hands of St Johnstone in Perth yesterday afternoon. The Hoops remain 13 points clear but are limping towards their title triumph and ruined what could have been a very special day for the Celtic support this coming Saturday…

Q: What are your thoughts on today’s game Brendan?

Brendan Rodgers: “I want to firstly give huge credit to St Johnstone. Sometimes that can get bypassed in the result, in our performance, but I thought for them, they fought for every ball from the first whistle. They get the goal and then they defend for their lives in the second half. So, it’s a huge credit to them and congratulations to them. For us, poor start to the game, but not the first time. This is something for me that we will look at, certainly in the summer.

“But the start was really poor, it was soft, and it was too comfortable in the game. We go behind and then obviously we are much better in the second half. They make some great saves, they make some great blocks, some of it is per finishing from ourselves. But overall, we disappointed today. We got three stands in the stadium full of our own supporters, expectant and that’s what you have to deal with as a Celtic player. We didn’t deal with that at all.”

READ THIS…St Johnstone 1-0 Celtic – Dear oh Dear. No excuses today

Q: When you say you look at the slow starts in the summer, just straight after the game, what are your thoughts on that?

Brendan Rodgers: “It’s mentality. It’s a group that has mental strength. But I’ve been in teams, especially up here, where you just power your way through the season, right to the very end. And there’s maybe a few that are comfortable. And comfort is not a physical place. When you’re comfortable, you become a bit timid, and you lose duels, and you lose the fight. And you can never be that. And you can never be that if you want to be a top player. So collectively, that’s the annoyance.

“It’s easily done. You can go into the game and look for an easy game, top to bottom. But the very best players are right on it from minute one. And I’m not talking here about boys like Callum McGregor, who deals with expectation, who deals with being the underdog in the Champions League and guys like that. But there’s absolutely no doubt, around some of our starts, we have some players going in looking for an easy game. And that’s what we need to look at.”

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