ROSS COUNTY goalkeeper Ross Laidlaw had to do a quick head count to make sure that Celtic weren’t playing with extra men as they tore his team apart on Saturday.

The former Hibernian keeper was his side’s top player as he kept the scoreline down to six. If not for his efforts, Celtic easily could have hit double figures.

But far from being dispirited, Laidlaw is putting the experience down to simply catching the champions on a day when they were at the top of their game.

“It was just the speed of them, they had players coming everywhere,” Laidlaw said.

“Their wee right back was brilliant, and they just absolutely killed us in behind in the second half.

“With the chances they created, they had so many different players who were brilliant.

“It felt like they had more players on the park than us. Being in the goal, I could have sworn they had two or three more players on the park.

“They were really good. I spoke to their manager after the game, who said they were really good, and we just caught them on the wrong day.

“I had a few saves to make. I had to, because I don’t think we were at the races.

“We are bitterly disappointed to come here and get beaten 6-0. We caught Celtic on a really good day, they were brilliant.

“It’s still disappointing, because at the end of the day I still let in six goals. That’s not a great feeling after the game.

“I just had to try and do what I had to do and keep the ball out of the net.”

Remarkably, a combination of Laidlaw’s brilliance and Celtic’s wasteful finishing meant that County were just a goal down at the interval, but any hopes of mounting a comeback were soon extinguished.

“We were quite positive at half time,” Laidlaw said. “Celtic had a lot of chances in the first half, but we were still in the game.

“It was 4-0 after 50 minutes, and it was just damage limitation at that stage. It was hard to keep ourselves going, but we had to try and do that.

“We just lost a poor goal at the start of the second half. We made a mistake for that, and I think the heads just dropped.

“With the way Celtic were playing, they were brilliant, and we just couldn’t live with them.”