Relieved Brendan Rodgers praised his Celtic players for showing ‘heart and soul’ to dig out a priceless win over Hibernian at Easter Road, and he says the psychological impact of the dramatic victory could be massive in the title race.
A late Adam Idah penalty gave Celtic the win after the striker’s earlier spot kick had been cancelled out by Dylan Levitt, ensuring the champions didn’t spill points for the second time on the road in a matter of days after their weekend draw at Pittodrie.
Rodgers was keen to stress that nothing would be decided by the outcome of the match on the evening in terms of the destination of the Premiership trophy, but the Celtic manager recognises the huge impact the victory could potentially have on his men and on the club’s supporters.
“It’s good to get a win at Easter Road, that was nice,” said Rodgers, who remarkably chalked up his first win at the venue.
“I’ve been travelling around Scotland now for a wee while, so it was really good.
“I said to the players before the game, listen whatever’s happened before there’s 14 games left of the season.
“I said that tonight you’re not going to win the title, but you also won’t lose it….and you can make a big psychological impact by coming away to a tough ground and winning.
“We got off to a great start, had a lot of the ball.
“But not so creative as I’d like with that finesse and technical ability in the final third to make easier the chances. However, we got through.
“Second half, not so good if I’m being honest. They pressed on to us well, so Nick (Montgomery) will be happy with that. We just lacked that bit of composure to play through that pressure which you need to do when a team presses you higher up the pitch.
“But what I never doubt about these players, and I said to them before the game, to get through and win games we need to play with our heart and our soul.
“The players showed immense heart to keep going right through to the very end and get the victory. So, really, really pleased for the team.
“We will play better – we have to play better, it’s not the level I want to see.
“But, we’ll go away and analyse it and look to be better in our next game.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel