BRENDAN RODGERS was full of praise for the performance of match winner James Forrest, not only for today hat-trick but for his displays over the entire time he has been the Celtic manager.
Forrest and his captain Scott Brown are the two clear front runners for Celtic’s player of the year and with today’s hat-trick – his first ever for the club – taking his total for the season to 16, then the Ayrshire Pele is certainly doing his chances no harm at all.
The Standing Section were even singing “There’s only one James Forrest.”
The Celtic boss was however extremely frustrated that the Jozo Simunovic gift gave the visitors the oxygen to get back in the game at 2-0 down and looking like losing more.
“I thought we started the game very well and the first 15 minutes had good structure, good positioning and scored two really good goals.
“But a big mistake we make gives them oxygen in the game and gave them a lift. It broke our rhythm.
“We should have been much better,” Brendan admitted.
“We started very well ended up getting two great goals. A mistake gave them oxygen and it upset our rhythm.”
“Then we make another mistake in how we give the ball away and all of a sudden with five minutes to go it’s tight.
“So overall it was a good win for us but we made it really, really difficult for us and if we are to win the cup then we will need to be better and make less mistakes at the back and in our build-up play.”
On James Forrest’s Man of the Match performance, Brendan was full of praise.
“He was outstanding today in the way he pressed the game and took his chances.
“James is the best receiver of the ball I have ever worked with, he is outstanding. He’s works incredibly hard, is full of confidence and has a great finish with the inside and outside of his foot. His goals today were excellent, especially his third goal,” Brendan said.
Cruising with a two goal lead with eight minutes remaining Rodgers was busy getting Tom Rogic ready to come on when Conor Sammon out-muscled Jozo Simunovic to pull a goal back after a slack pass out of defence by the off-form central defender set up the chance.
Rogic was told to sit back down and Thistle almost pulled of a dramatic comeback in the closing seconds.
“It took a brilliant piece of defending from Kieran Tierney at back post to prevent them scoring again,” the Celtic boss said.
“If we are going to win the cup we are going to have to play much better,” he admitted.
