Pat Bonner says one Celtic player proved him and the BBC pundits wrong in win vs Livingston

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Pat Bonner says he was proven wrong by one Celtic player in the 3-0 win over Livingston yesterday.

A trio of second-half goals claimed the three points as the Celtic fans welcomed back Reo Hatate from his lengthy injury layoff.

And whilst the Japanese midfielder earned all the plaudits and who Bonner admits was the stand-out performer, it was Paulo Bernardo who also really impressed the former Celtic hero with his cameo performance off the bench.

Paulo Bernardo ‘crucial’ in Celtic win

The Portuguese midfielder has been flitting in and out of the Celtic side of late. With Hatate now back in the fold, Bernardo will really need to take his opportunity to impress whenever they come along now.

And yesterday, he did just that by scoring Celtic’s second of the match. And it was doing that where Bonner admits that Bernardo has proved him and his fellow BBC pundits wrong.

Bonner said [Scottish Football Podcast], “The team worked really hard. I was impressed with [Tomoki] Iwata in the middle of the pitch also.

“I thought he had a decent game. He kept the game flowing.

“Hatate was the pick out for us coming back into the team and being a big influence.

“Bernardo coming off the bench, we did wonder whether he could step up. He did come off the bench and scored a very crucial goal, that second goal, it was a good strike low every other strike before that was probably in an area where the goalkeeper could save it high up in the goal.

“This one was low down to the goalkeeper’s right-hand side and it was a really good finish. And that just then killed the game off from that perspective.”

Paulo Bernardo Celtic stats vs Livingston

Coming on as a 65th-minute sub, the Portuguese midfielder wasted no time in getting involved in the action.

Rated 7.6 by Fotmob, on top of his goal, Bernardo had 24 touches of the ball which led to a 93% passing accuracy.

Helping the Celtic attack, the 22-year-old created one chance, had 100% successful dribbles and also made one solitary foray into the Livingston box.

Defensively, Bernardo did well. He made three ball recoveries, won two of his five duels and made one defensive action.

A very good performance for the 25+ minutes he was on the park. Will it be enough to make the Ibrox starting lineup next week?

I very much doubt it but what Bernardo did yesterday was prove that he can be a very effective option from the bench should Brendan Rodgers need to call upon him.