ANGE POSTECOGLOU was delighted with Celtic’s 4-1 win over St Johnstone this afternoon on a McDiarmid Park pitch which could hardly be described as a field of dreams.
The Perth playing surface was rutted and bumpy, but the champions overcame that obstacle and stubborn opponents to maintain their nine-point advantage at the top of the Premiership.
As well as the massive lead in points, the Parkhead men are also 25 goals better off than their nearest Ibrox challengers.
BALL BHOY…Ange Postecoglou in charge during a break in the game.
Kyogo Furuhashi, Aaron Mooy and David Turnbull all collected invaluable strikes after the unfortunate Andy Considine, later red-carded in stoppage-time, put through his own goal to get the ball rolling in the 13th minute.
It was an impressive performance from the visitors who never wavered from the task at hand right from the off.
Postecoglou, speaking to Sky Sports, said: “I’m really pleased because the conditions weren’t easy, particularly the pitch. We had to overcome that and not steer too far away from our football and I thought we did that.
“Because of the nature of the game, there were times when we had to defend and I thought we did that really well, too, which was good to see and we got four good goals.
PERTHQUAKE…Ange Postecoglou salutes the Celtic fans at McDiarmid Park.
“As the game went on the pitch got more and more cut up which meant there were going to be more mistakes and make it harder for us to move the ball quickly, but I still thought some of our football was excellent.
“Those early goals were important because it gave us a foothold in the game. We’re disappointed to concede the one we did, but we reacted to it in the right manner.”
Joe Hart was forced to retrieve the ball from the back of his net in the 25th minute after six consecutive clean sheets. The Hoops keeper was beaten with a surprise drive from Drey Wright from outside the box which swept past him low to his right.
