Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou has hailed his team’s mentality for grinding out a result at Ibrox today even when they weren’t playing particularly well.
The Bhoys started strongly against Rangers in the derby clash but eventually lost control of proceedings and found themselves a goal behind for the majority of the second half.
Nonetheless, as they have done many times before under Postecoglou, Celtic found a way to goal and a result that got the job done in the context of the bigger title race picture.
And there’s something satisfying in that for Celtic manager, who told The Scotsman: “It was a cracking game of football; a good derby. Both teams were going at it. We started really well and then just lost our way a little bit. The last 10/15 minutes of the first half we were giving the ball away unnecessarily, uncharacteristically for us without a great deal of pressure.
“That allowed them to get that little bit of belief and obviously they came out at the start of the second half really strong. We struggled to get to grips but again, when it was required, the players found the will and character to get the goal later to get us a result.
“They are human beings, they are not going to be perfect all the time. The beauty of it is within that context they still found a way because at 2-1 it would have been easy, with the crowd the way it was and the way the game was going for us, to resign ourselves to our fate – ‘it is not our day’ – but this group of players never do that and they didn’t today.”
This mentality has got Celtic through some tough afternoons previously and it looks like a trend that will continue into 2023, much to all of our delight.
The Bhoys aren’t going to be at their swashbuckling best every week but as long as they keep persevering until the very end of matches they’ll find a way in domestic action more often than not. That’s a credit to them.
In other news, Celtic boss Ange Postecoglou responds brilliantly to bizarre Michael Beale assertion.
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