CELTIC have emphasised boss Ange Postecoglou’s mantra of “we never stop” by scoring goals late in games that have already been won.
The Hoops may be forgiven if they took their foot off the gas and coasted to three points or a knock-out victory, but the players have been relentless and ruthless as games have ticked towards the final whistle.
The champions proved that mindset once again in the Scottish Cup fifth round win over St Mirren at Parkhead on Saturday.
South Korean new Bhoy Oh Hyeon-gyu netted the third goal – his first for the Hoops – to make it 3-0 in the 80th minute to effectively kill the match as a contest.
OH, HAPPY DAY…Celtic new Bhoy Oh Hyoen-gyu races away after scoring his first goal to make it 3-0 against St Mirren. Sead Haksabanovic joins in the celebrations while Reo Hatate retrieves the ball from the back of the net.
The visitors pulled one back five minutes later through a Mark O’Hara penalty-kick and then Matt O’Riley restored the three-goal advantage on the brink of stoppage-time and Reo Hatate collected his second of the day just before the whistle.
Postecoglou, who is now preparing his players for the game against Aberdeen at Parkhead tomorrow afternoon, said: “We’re scoring a lot of goals and we’re minimising the opposition’s threat against us which has been the bigger thing since the break.
“Our pressing and counter-pressing have been on the mark which has allowed us to go on and score goals.
“It comes back to the mentality of the lads because a lot of people talk about our late goals to get us results, but that’s dismissive of the fact that last week we scored two goals beyond the 90 minutes when we didn’t have to.
“When that’s your mindset and the way you want to play your football, then you can affect the scoreboard more because we will play until the last minute and that helps in terms of getting more goals.”
A BUNCH OF FIVES…Reo Hatate turns away after lashing in the final goal in the 5-1 win over St Mirren. Defender Declan Gallagher and keeper Trevor Carson are beaten men.
Extra training time in recent weeks has allowed the four January recruits – Oh, Alistair Johnston and Japanese duo Yuki Kobayashi and Tomoki Iwata – to blend in more easily within the group.
The downside to one game a week, of course, is that the manager hasn’t been able to give some players more minutes on the pitch.
Postecoglou, speaking to Celtic TV, added: “They’ve all fitted in really well, which is important.
“Alistair has already made a meaningful contribution, Oh has started to get some game-time which is great for us.
“With Tomoki and Yuki, they are training really well and I haven’t quite got them the game-time at the minute, but I’ve no doubt they will play significant game-time before the end of the year with the way they’re training.
“The key thing for me is they have settled in well and are in good physical conditioning which I think means when they get the opportunity they will be ready to go.
“We’re in a funny period for us with a game a week and not many injuries, but I’ve no doubt over the next three weeks we will change things up a bit and they will get some significant game-time.”
Kyogo Furuhashi trained this morning and is fit for the match against the Dons, but midfielder David Turnbull is out after sustaining a knock against the Paisley club.
