Celtic’s Ange Postecoglou second cup bid fuelled by memories of 'sensational days' and 'a couple of quiet scotches'

There are myriad reasons why Celtic’s Premier Sports Cup success from December would pale against triumphing in the Scottish Cup.

Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou celebrates with the Premier Sports Cup trophy in December and says his toasting afterwards was proper even if not what others might consider would amount to that.(Photo by Craig Williamson / SNS Group)

Aside from the far weightier prestige attached to the latter competition, the possibility it could complete a treble, the contrast between the two is wrapped up in the scheduling. Celtic had to curb their enthusiasm over Ange Postecoglou’s first trophy of his tenure, earned with their 2-1 victory against Hibs in the weekend before Christmas decider, because they had a league game three days later. Meanwhile, the Scottish Cup showpiece ends the domestic season for every cinch Premiership team that avoids the play-offs.

The Celtic manager’s bids to return his top flight pacesetters to Hampden involves negotiating their Scottish Cup quarter-final with Dundee United at Tannadice on Monday. As he does so, the 56-year-old doesn’t see festivities that accompanied his route to silverware in a fifth frontline coaching post as providing mere snifters, though. It was more a case of his afternoons at the national team to achieve that going down so smoothly that the palette of the Australian has been fired up for more.

“I celebrated the League Cup properly, but it will sound pretty boring to what you might have in mind as a celebration: I had a couple of quiet scotches to myself and that is the extent of it for me,” said Postecoglou. “I wanted to make sure that the players celebrated their efforts because I think it was a fantastic day. The semi-final [win over St Johnstone] and the final at Hampden were sensational days. And my experience of them as Celtic manager was I enjoyed them immensely.

“It helps when you are successful but it was a great atmosphere and a great occasion and for us it was important because it showed people we had made progress. We had a tough beginning to the season, in terms of form and results, [and going from that] to winning a trophy in the first-half of the season was really important as a marker for us. We acknowledged it but also knew we had a game days later so it was important we used that as a good impetus for us. We didn’t rest on our laurels and say ‘OK, we have won a trophy, we are OK for the rest of the year.’ If anything it whet the appetite for more.”

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