BRENDAN RODGERS knows the significance of the remaining 4 fixtures in the Scottish Premiership this year as Celtic look to finish the year on top of the league.
“It’s an important period now. We’ll get a break after that, which the players clearly need.
“We’ll be at the top, or somewhere about it, by the turn of the year. We know we’ll get stronger. We know we’ll get better.
“We’ll push on into the second half of the season really motivated. We’re getting towards the end of another great year.
“We’ve won a cup already, are into the last 32 of the Europa League and in the league everything is in our hands. So I can’t complain. We want to be better, of course. We can be better.
“But we need to go into our next two home games, starting with Motherwell, looking to get maximum points. The players have been amazing for me. Now we have to kick on and put that hunger into action.
“You look at the league and you see it’s tight, which I’ve always said is good.
“We always look at our own game because what Rangers do, or Kilmarnock or any of the teams, is irrelevant to us. We have to do our own job and play to our own standards.
“It’s tighter this year. But like I say we’re in a very good position and if we can take that into the second part of the season I’ll be very happy.”
Tonight’s game can’t come quickly enough for the Celtic players, as James Forrest said yesterday – see HERE and looking back, Rodgers himself knows that his team didn’t deserve anything from the game at Easter Road on Sunday and he was clear on this while speaking at his pre-match press conference yesterday.
“My reflections aren’t any different. There is always disappointment when you lose a game.
“We didn’t play well and were disappointed. It was the first game that we conceded a goal in the first half this season domestically, so that tells you why I was so shocked at conceding so early.
“It’s not something we normally do. We normally start really brightly and with a tempo. But the first goal put us on the back foot and, of course, it gives Hibs a bit of oxygen and a surge of adrenalin.
“We didn’t play well enough. That’s the reality. From time to time there will be variables that go against us — injuries, things that will happen in the game, and maybe not quite being at our level.”
Also on The Celtic Star today…
‘Celtic have not had a single home game after playing in Europe,’ P Aranoid…See HERE.
Jim Craig – Celtic’s Star Peter Scarff…See HERE.
