ANGE POSTECOGLOU hailed the Celtic spirit in a gritty 3-1 victory over rugged Ross County in Dingwall yesterday.
The champions were forced dig deep into their resources to come back from the shock of losing an equalising goal when it looked as though they were going to make unhindered progress in their quest for a 34th successive unbeaten league encounter.
Kyogo Furuhashi, last season’s top scorer with 20 strikes, got off the mark with the opening goal shortly after the turnaround following some clever work from Callum McGregor and Filipe Jota on the left wing.
NOW YOU SEE ME, NOW YOU DON’T…Filipe Jota gives Ross County captain Jack Baldwin the slip.
The Portuguese flyer swept in a low inviting cross and the Japanese hitman pulled the trigger from 12 yards and keeper Ross Laidlaw had no chance as the ball unerringly flew past him at his right-hand post.
But that was nullified when Alex Iacovetti forced in a right-wing corner-kick and the match was tied at 1-1 with only six minutes remaining.
Jota and Greg Taylor worked a short corner on the left before the former Benfica star whipped in another superb delivery which was met by new Bhoy Moritz Jenz who left the netminder standing with a perfect glancing header.
THREE CHEERS…Matt O’Riley salutes the Celtic fans after the third goal while scorer Liel Abada prepares to put his shirt back on. Josip Juranovic congratulates Filipe Jota after his third assist of the day.
In the fading moments, it was fans’ favourite Jota again who teed up Liel Abada to curl in a breathtaking third to bring down the curtain on well-deserved victory in the Highlands.
Postecoglou said: “I thought we played really well, it’s a difficult place to come to, we know that and particularly it was windy and they are a big, physical team.
“But I’m really proud of the players. We stuck to our task and I thought we dominated the game in just about every aspect.
“They go up once for a corner and score, but you just have to see our reaction to know that the spirt that we had last year is still well within this group.
“Even at 2-1, we got ourselves a third, that’s the kind of team we want to be and we want to make sure that we don’t let things during the game affect what we believe in – and it gets tested at a place like this.”
JUST CHAMPION…Ange Postecoglou hails the Celtic followers at full-time with another three points in the bag.
Postecoglou, speaking to Celtic TV, added: “A lot of teams will come here and drop points for sure, so to have that belief within us even on a difficult day is credit to the players.
“They showed it in abundance last year and we want to improve our football absolutely, but we still have to have that resilience and that belief in ourselves that, irrespective of the challenge in front of us, we can overcome it.
“And we had to show that quite a great deal last year, this year we want to improve our football, but we don’t want to lose that, it’s still a very important part of who we are.”
NEW BHOY JENZ ON TARGET IN TIGHTROPE FINISH
