Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers has hailed his players for not panicking at the 80-minute mark in their quest for a winner over St Mirren on Wednesday night.
It was a tough evening in the Scottish Premiership for Rodgers’ side after St Mirren scored the opening goal through Conor McMenamin.
An equaliser from David Turnbull brought the Bhoys back into the game, although his missed penalty meant Celtic went into the interval with plenty of work to do.
At one stage in the second half, it looked like it could be one of those nights for the Scottish champions, but substitutes coming into the game provided the spark needed and Hyeongyu Oh rattled in the winner with just 7 minutes remaining, with the match finishing 2-1.
Rodgers hails Celtic identity after St Mirren
Rodgers thinks it’s a credit to the mentality and spirit of his Celtic group, stating post-match [Celtic Way]: “Listen, it’s one of those ones – you know the game lasts 90 plus minutes so you trust your team. They’ve scored late goals already this season. It’s the make-up of this club to keep going and persevere.
“I was really just pleased with the quality of the winning goal. We saw that at Motherwell when we got that winner late on. With 80-odd minutes on the clock here, you can start to panic but we worked the ball really well.
“The goal was terrific. Of course, you can never be sure but I trust the team that they will keep going until the end and when you do that opportunities will come. It’s part of the value of this team – that ability to keep going. When you bring in players you are always looking for players who have that resilience in their make-up.
“It’s part of what you do when you recruit a player. When you play for a club like this one, there’s no choice – you keep fighting, you keep running and allow your quality to come through and that’s exactly what happened.”
The win leaves Celtic five points clear at the top of the table and was much-needed, with second-placed Rangers earning a big victory on the road away to Dundee.
Rodgers is right about his players. Time and again they’ve shown they can dig in for victories when needed. We witnessed it under Ange Postecoglou and it was heartening to see that desire in this specific group last night too.
That’s particularly true of the new signings such as Odin Thiago Holm and Hyunjun Yang. Clearly, the Celtic way of doing things is rubbing off on them, going by their substitute appearances.
Celtic will pick up classier wins than Wednesday night’s, but it’ll be as satisfying a three points the team will earn all season.
In other news, What Jota told Paulo Bernardo before Benfica to Celtic move; prediction comes true.
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