Ange Postecoglou 'not playing ducks and drakes' over Giorgos Giakoumakis as Celtic boss delivers rare VAR praise

Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou was content that VAR showed how it can work best on a night when the technology was deployed to check three goals flagged for offside.

Celtic's Kyogo Furuhashi celebrates after making it 2-0 over St Mirren. (Photo by Ross MacDonald / SNS Group)

Across the Scottish champions’ 4-0 thumping of St Mirren the system confirmed that the assistant referees had made the right calls for two incidents - one for Celtic and the other the visitors - they adjudged fell foul of offside. And in a third VAR overturned an on-field offside after Kyogo Furuhashi had plundered a second strike of the encounter shortly after the break for Celtic’s third of the evening.

Postecolgou has been left frustrated by VAR’s ruling on a number of occasions since its October introduction, but the definitives involved in how it was utilised in another three points for the runaway cinch Premiership leaders, as opposed to handball incidents, was homed in on by the Australian.

“I don’t think anyone has got an issue with offsides, that is what it is there for,” he said, also noting how the lengthy delays with the system that he has previously bemoaned were avoided. “It was fairly quick tonight, and I’m assuming they got them all right, so it’s all good.”

Meanwhile, the Celtic manager appeared to betray a weariness over the constant presumptions that Giorgos Giakoumakis’ exit from the club could come at any moment. The striker was not involved last night through injury as the rival who has restricted his game-time in Kyogo Furuhashi dazzled with a glorious lobbed finish for the first of two goals. But Postecoglou gave a sharp response that involved aviary imagery when asked if he was confident the player would still be at the club come Saturday’s Scottish Cup hosting of Morton.

“I see no reason why not,” he said. “I just deal with what is in front of me, and until I’m told otherwise or something significant happens. He was here tonight mate, so you could have asked him yourself… He’s still very much part of our set-up, I’m not playing ducks and drakes. He would have been involved tonight if he wasn’t injured.”

St Mirren counterpart Stephen Robinson acknowledged the finesse of Furuhashi in his post-match assessment but felt that did not entirely explain away the outcome. "The second goal is an incredible finish, sometimes you have to hold your hands up, but we feel we are better than what we showed,” he said. “We expected to put in a better fight than that. There was a lot of desire and energy but we just lacked a little bit of belief and quality when we landed on the ball for a 20-minute period and that killed us against a very good side.”