'I heard them for 95-100 minutes, mate': Why Celtic boss' ears were ringing as Ange Postecoglou hails his team for staying on course

Ange Postecoglou has praised his team for again refusing to be deflected from their purpose as Celtic came from behind to defeat ten-man Hibs.

Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou celebrates at full time after the win over Hibs.

Chaos reigned but Celtic were steadfast in their determination to maintain their nine-point lead at the top, which they did thanks to second-half goals from Jota, from the penalty spot, and substitute pair Hyeongyu Oh and Sead Haksabanovic.

Oh’s header to finally put Celtic in front came with just nine minutes remaining. Josh Campbell had put Hibs ahead in the first-half from the penalty spot despite the visitors being reduced to ten men after only 25 minutes. Elie Youan picked up his second booking of the afternoon after an innocuous-looking tangle with Cameron Carter-Vickers near the halfway line.

“You can’t let the game drag you away from what’s really important to us as a football team,” said Postecoglou. “And it’s not easy to do. There’s anxiety, there’s tension, there’s disruption, there’s the opposition – there are all these other factors trying to pull you away from what you are trying to do. It’s a big part of who we are as a team. To not veer away from that, and to try and find the solutions within our football. It does not require some magic from someone or people to do things we have not done in the past. The process works, as long as the players are disciplined in their approach. It’s not the first time we have needed to find a way and we have found it our way.”

Postecoglou said he was aware of opposite number Lee Johnson’s complaints about the standard of refereeing. "I'm well aware of Lee's feelings, I heard them for 95-100 minutes, mate, I can well imagine,” he said. “They were decisions, mate, all of them, like every decision. For me it's more about the disruption it gives to the game. We had 15 minutes of extra-time purely on the back of officials' disruption. That doesn't really excite me that much but decisions are decisions, mate, and we have just got to cop them whether they are good or bad.”