Ange Postecoglou hails Celtic resilience, pinpoints duo for praise and reveals reasons for Jota half-time sub

Ange Postecoglou hailed the resillience of his Celtic players after they recovered from the concession of a 93rd minute equaliser to win 2-1 against St Johnstone.

The Scottish champions were comfortable for large parts of the game at McDiarmid Park after an Andy Considine own goal had given them the lead but required a 95th minute winner from Georgios Giakoumakis after Alex Mitchell had scored for Saints two minutes prior.

"It’s a game we probably should have put to bed a little bit earlier with the chances we had,” Postecoglou said.

“At 1-0 you know that it’s always on a bit of a knife-edge, particularly as they’re a team who will lump balls into the box, and you are going to have to defend sometimes pretty desperately.

“They obviously got the goal late, but again, there was great character and resilience by the lads. We did it a few times last year and we’re going to have to show that at times again this year.

“You can win a game of football in many ways, but I think winning it this way also provides us confidence in the fact that we still have that sort of resilience within the group.”

Two of Celtics key performers were summer signings Sead Haksabanovic and Alexandro Bernabei, both providing assists.

“I thought Haksa was really good, he was a threat any time he got on the ball running at them or running into little channels,” Postecoglou said. “I thought he was really good.

Celtic boss Ange Postecoglou. (Photo by Ross MacDonald / SNS Group)

“(Bernabei) did well. He got a bit tired towards the end but to be fair to him that was his first game of football for quite a while.

“I thought he showed the attributes we really find exciting. He takes the game on and is really aggressive with the ball. His defending is improving and he is a young player we have high hopes for.”

Postecoglou also revealed the reasons for Jota being replaced at half-time.

"There was a bit of fatigue there and we were never going to give him too many minutes,” he said. “Again, he has been carrying a heavy load with a few games in the stretch and we thought we would take him off at half time.”