'Our Quality Got Us Through In The End, And It Was A Great Win For Us'

A Word With The Manager

- Joe Donnelly

QUALITY, resilience and character are traits Brendan Rodgers highlighted in the wake of Sunday’s hard-fought 2-0 away win over St Johnstone, a result which restored Celtic’s six-point lead at the top of the Premiership table.

The scoreline mirrored last Wednesday’s victory at Paradise, but a reshuffled, refocused and typically organised performance from Tommy

Wright’s men posed new challenges for the Hoops, in a match the visitors saw out with just nine men on the pitch.

With three substitutes used into the second-half, a hamstring concern forced James Forrest down the tunnel late in the game, before Kristoffer Ajer was sent off in added time.

Goals from Forrest and super-sub Timo Weah secured maximum points at McDiarmid Park – the young American scoring and assisting, having come on with just 15 minutes of normal time on the clock – in what was a patient and resolute display from the Scottish champions.

And the Celtic manager was delighted with the result, in a game where he described Saints goalkeeper Zander Clark as ‘inspired’.

Speaking to the Celtic View, Brendan Rodgers said: “I thought it was a very good game. It was a tough game for us, against St Johnstone it always is, and we had to show that resilience, persistence and we waited for the chances to come. Our quality got us through in the end, and it was a great, great win for us.

“Zander Clark is very good too. He’s always very inspired against us, he plays very well and makes great saves. He made some really good saves, but we kept going, we felt it was coming and it was about getting our fluency. Some of our football was very good, I thought the speed of our game was very good, and eventually we got there.”