ANGE POSTECOGLOU has told his Celtic players not to take their powers of recovery for granted, as he warned them that it will take a huge effort to recover from their Hampden heartache in order to clinch the Premiership title.

The Celtic manager has been full of praise for his men over the course of the season for the manner in which they have reacted to moments of adversity, but he knows that their Scottish Cup semi-final defeat to Rangers will be their biggest test of character to date.

He has faith that his players will bounce back yet again in the remaining five games of the league season, starting with the visit to face Ross County on Sunday, but has told them they will have to fight every inch of the way for the right to be crowned champions – as he feels they deserve to.

“The road to success is not downhill, mate,” Postecoglou said. “It requires effort every single step of the way.

“Sometimes you’ll stumble and we’ve stumbled a few times this year as a group, and we’ve managed to bounce back quickly.

“That’s what we’ve got to do again, but just because it’s happened in the past doesn’t mean it’s going to happen in the future.

“What you do know is that we’re capable of it, and we’ve used it the right way in the past, and we use this disappointment in the right way for next week.

“This is just another [challenge]. We’ve had quite a lot of setbacks this year and we’ve got to use the disappointment of today to fuel what’s left in terms of the season.

“We’ve got five games to become champions, so we have to go out there and perform well in every one of those games, win those games, and hopefully if that happens then the players will get the rewards I think they deserve for their performances this season.”