ANGE POSTECOGLOU couldn’t hide his frustration as Celtic failed to fire on all cylinders and had to be satisfied with a 2-2 draw with St Mirren at Parkhead.
The champions urgently required a late equaliser from skipper Callum McGregor to preserve their impressive undefeated home league record of 16 wins and two draws.
Curiously, the two stalemates have come in back-to-back games in the east end of Glasgow with Motherwell earning a 1-1 draw last month where the Hoops captain again netted the crucial strike.
And the most recent disappointment came just a week after the dreadful loss at Ibrox which marked only their second Premiership defeat of the campaign, the other coming in Paisley with an unexpected nosedive in September.
GRIM VIEWING…manager Ange Postecoglou watches below-par Celtic struggle against St Mirren.
Celtic had to come back twice to reply to efforts from Curtis Main with Kyogo Furuhashi also on target and Postecoglou said: “It was a tough game and credit to St Mirren. They worked hard, as we knew they would.
“We weren’t at our best in terms of just working hard enough and putting the things in play that allow us to dominate a game, but the boys found something to fight back, so, at least, we got a share.
“We never really got going and some of that is credit to them, but I just thought we lacked a little bit of urgency and energy, particularly without the ball. We’ve been really good without the ball and we’ve just looked off it a bit in the last couple of weeks.
“When you do that, then it’s hard to take control of the game with the ball, as well, so part of the way we set up is that we need to continually put pressure on the opposition and we didn’t do that.”
SERIOUS STUFF…Ange Postecoglou was frustrated with his team’s display.
Postecoglou, speaking to Celtic TV, added: “Again, they found a will to get a result out of the game which is still important for us.
“They were both good goals, but, like I said, we unfortunately didn’t reach the levels we wanted to.”
The champions, after claiming their eleventh crown in 12 years, are looking forward to Flag Day at a sell-out Parkhead on Saturday as the curtain comes down on the league crusade with Aberdeen providing the opposition.
Before that, though, there is the visit to Edinburgh to take on Hibs at Easter Road in midweek, a venue where Postecoglou’s men enjoyed a 4-0 romp just before the turn of the year.
With the championship chase done and dusted, all eyes will turn to Hampden a week on Saturday when the Hoops have the opportunity to seal a marvellous treble when they meet Inverness Caley Thistle in the Scottish Cup Final.
