Armstrong hails Forrest’s final fire
in big games already this season.
“It was a tough game for us in that opening half. There wasn’t too much space and James’ goal was so important.
“That is what we have – big players here who step up in the big games and I think we have all seen that James is one of them this season with some of the performances that he has put in.
“Moussa is the same. You can forget that he is still a very young player because of his temperaments. He is very calm under any kind of pressure and that second goal was so important for us. It was a big moment.
“He kept his nerve to take the penalty and I think it is the sign of big players that they have that composure about them.”
Celtic’s successful defence of the trophy which marked the first of the Rodgers’ regime is testimony to the ruthless consistency of the Parkhead side.
The win at Hampden represents the 65th domestic game without defeat.
Motherwell were aggrieved at the manner in which Scott Sinclair went down for the penalty and Armstrong had some sympathy for the circumstances that surrounded the goal that effectively killed the game off as a contest.
“It is tough to be in that position,” said Armstrong. “I felt for them a bit because it is never nice to have a man sent off in a final. I didn’t have a great view of the incident and I was unsure whether it was or wasn’t the right call but in a situation like that you are just going to take what the referee says and it came out well for us.
The sending off really hurt them and from there on in we really controlled the game.”