BRENDAN RODGERS admitted he had no intention of keeping an eye on how Celtic’s nearest challengers fared against Dundee this afternoon.
The game, of course, has since been postponed due to pitch conditions, but the Hoops boss would not have been taking in the action in any case.
Rodgers watched his team overcome St Johnstone 3-1 at Parkhead yesterday to edge a point ahead in the race for the title.
Philippe Clement’s Ibrox outfit were due to play at Dens Park at midday, but torrential rain on Tayside and surroundings areas wiped out the fixture.
GREEN FOR GO…Brendan Rodgers will enjoy celebrating St Patrick’s Day.
Before the match was cancelled, Rodgers was asked if he would be watching events elsewhere with the game due to be broadcast live. The team boss, speaking to Sky Sports, answered with a smile: “It’s St Patrick’s day tomorrow, there will be a celebration of the Irish community worldwide.
“I won’t have any interest in other results. We did our job today and that’s all we can do. We’ll have a good day tomorrow.”
The champions now have several players away on international duty – Greg Taylor and Anthony Ralston are with Scotland – before the Premiership resumes with a match against Livingston in West Lothian in a fortnight’s time.
Rodgers revealed he had made contact with USA head coach Gregg Berhalter over Cameron Carter-Vickers’ situation with the club’s centre-back making a return against the Perth club before being replaced with Odin Holm in the 75th minute as a precautionary measure.
He added: “Fingers crossed, they all come back healthy and we have a strong squad. The only one I spoke to was Gregg at the US team.
WELCOME BACK…Cameron Carter-Vickers returned to first-team action yesterday with Alistair Johnston delighted to acknowledge his presence in the back four.
“Obviously, the case with Cam, who has been out for a bit, I was just worried he would go away and be involved in a couple of games when their big games are more later on in June.
“We had a good chat and it was decided that he stays behind and does his work for us and tries to remain fit for the rest of the season.
“You always have to respect international managers’ job as well and I also respect that players want to play international football.”
Strikes from Kyogo Furuhashi, Nicolas Kuhn and James Forrest fired the Hoops into pole position, but the hosts should have won with a hatful of goals.
Annoyingly, the Perth side scored with only their second effort on target after Joe Hart had made a remarkable reflex save to push away a header from Stevie May. Unfortunately, the rebound dropped straight to the unmarked Connor Smith who thumped a shot high into the net.
Earlier, Celtic had three goals disallowed for offside, denied what looked like a handball on the line, hit the crossbar with a mighty drive from Kyogo and saw keeper Dimitar Mitov produce two spectacular saves to foil Tomoki Iwata and Matt O’Riley.
CRACKERJACK KYOGO FIRES HOOPS TO PINNACLE
