Ange Postecoglou will assess his squad for fitness after a gruelling afternoon in the sunshine at Hampden on Sunday which ended in disappointment with a 2-1 AET defeat to theRangers in the Scottish Cup semi-final. This incidentally is the first defeat at Hampden since that penalty shoot out back in 2016. “I think both sets of players were pretty spent. They gave everything, so I’ll see what the wash-up is. I don’t think it’s going to keep anyone out at the moment. It was disappointing and obviously an opportunity missed.”
The Celtic manager will be anxious to check on the likes of Josip Juranovic, Celtic goalscorer Greg Taylor, Cameron Carter Vickers and Liel Abada who all picked up knocks or in Josip’s case what could turn out to be a significant injury at this time of the season.
The focus will turn quickly to the match on Sunday up in Dingwall against Ross County, the first of five post-split fixtures that Celtic will be looking to negotiate as the title target edges ever closer. “Our main goal this year was to become champions — and that’s still in our hands,” Ange noted after the Hampden disappointment, as reported by Daily Record. “We’ve got five games to do that and that’s what we’ve got to focus on.
“We’ve got five games to become champions, so we have to go out there and perform well in every one of those games and hopefully if that happens then the players will get the rewards I think they deserve for their performances this season.
“The road to success is not downhill. It requires effort every single step of the way. Sometimes you’ll stumble and we’ve stumbled a few times this year as a group, but we’ve been able to bounce back quickly. That’s what we’ve got to do again now.
“But just because it’s happened in the past doesn’t mean it’s going to happen in the future. What you do know is that we’re capable of it, and we’ve used it the right way in the past. And we will use this disappointment in the right way for next week.”
Ange Postecoglou also stated that the pursuit of doubles or trebles has never been on his mind and that this type of chat is perhaps more of a Scottish concern that most of us would like to believe. “I never thought about trebles or doubles, that’s language that’s used here. I’ve never thought about that in my career and I won’t think about it now.
“Every competition is an opportunity to be successful. For us at the moment we’ve won one trophy this year. Obviously our main goal this year was to become champions, and that’s still in our hands. We’ve got five games to do that and that’s what we’ve got to focus on.”
It took a 97th minute winner from Tony Ralston to get the points on the last trip up the A9 and Malky Mackay’s side were deep in a relegation battle at that time. Now having achieved a top six finish the pressure is very much off the Ross County players this weekend and that could be a significant factor in a match Celtic will be looking to win.
Yet even allowing for the difficult start to the season Ange would not accept that he’d have accepted the position Celtic are in at the moment with one trophy won and a healthy lead in the Scottish premiership going into the post-split fixtures but having lost out in the Scottish Cup. “I think that’s selling ourselves short and our supporters short.
“Our supporters came hoping to see us get to another final. I don’t think you can take these opportunities for granted, you don’t just assume they’re going to come around every year. All of them are hard-earned and when they come around you want to take them.
“I don’t think we’ve lost perspective and I don’t think it’s a matter of tailoring your language to make sure the players feel good about it. The reality of it is we were in a semi-final, a tight game as we knew it would be, and unfortunately we didn’t progress.
“That doesn’t change anything about next week. Whether we won or not the goal is still the same.”
Ultimately though while the magnificent Celtic support at Hampden on Sunday – and the rest watching on television screens around the world – were disappointed at the defeat and perhaps also the performance – they would have bitten your hand off if you’d offered a League Cup and Scottish Premiership double at the start of the season and again in mid-September as Celtic were in sixth place in the league after losing our third game of the season at Livingston.
Last night we looked back on Celtic’s remarkable winning run at Hampden which really does put Sunday’s defeat into perspective. Well worth a read….
