Ross County manager Malky MacKay praised his side for completing a unique achievement for the second time this season in last night’s 4-1 defeat to Celtic; being the only team to score against the champions.
Alex Iacovitti’s second goal in as many games in August against Celtic gave County hope after the cup holders went 2-0 up in the first half, but even after late pair of goals secured the Hoops’ progression and added gloss to the scoreline, McKay was keen to highlight the positives for his side.
As reported by the Scotsman, he said: “We stayed in the game. There are times when Celtic do that (go a couple of goals up) and can run away with it, we saw that at the weekend. But we were resilient, we stayed in the game. And second half, we decided to make a couple of changes and went man for man all over the pitch.
“For 45 minutes, to go man for man against the league champions, who are about to play Real Madrid, and play the way we did, and cause them the problems we did, and score – we are the only team in the country to score against Celtic, and we’ve done it twice now.
“The momentum was with us (before Celtic’s third and fourth goal). I’ve got to be proud of them for that. We’ve played Celtic twice, Rangers and Hearts in six weeks and at no point have been out of the game.”
Celtic were 2-0 up and cruising at half time thanks to Callum McGregor’s volleyed opener and Giorgios Giakoumakis’ well-taken second, but Iacovitti’s header gave County hope with twenty minutes to go against Ange Postecoglou’s much-changed side.
However, just as in the 3-1 league win at the same venue earlier in the month, a pair of late goals ensured that Celtic’s perfect start to the season continued, as Daizen Maeda and James Forrest got off the mark for the season.
It was a highly successful night in the highlands for Celtic who now have a quarter final against Motherwell due in October, and also had the luxury of resting key stars ahead of a crunch double header in Paradise against Rangers and Real Madrid in the next week.
In other news: Celtic fringe man Mikey Johnston set for deadline day Portugal loan move
Receive a digest of our best Celtic content each week direct to your mailbox
