Play the full or I’ll axe you
Celtic’s stars have been warned their places are at stake if they think they can drop their guard against St Johnstone today.
The champions followed their 6- 0 burial of Saints at McDiarmid Park in October with a 2- 0 cruise over Tommy Wright’s men in midweek.
But Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers insisted: “They can’t afford to think that because they scored six there the last time or were as comfortable as they were the other night that it just happens again.
“You have to be ready to go. Tommy Wright may press the game more, we need to be ready for that, ready to win the second balls, do the dirty work.
“We have a competitive squad now which means everyone has to be right on it. If you want to sustain
your place in the team you have to empty your tank every time.”
Despite Celtic’s 12 wins from 12 at home in the Premiership, that 6-0 win in Perth was one of only four all season in their 11 away games.
Rodgers knows that must change if the sixpoint lead they currently enjoy is to last.
He said: “We need to be better in our concentration away from home.
“I spoke to the players on Wednesday about getting that game in hand played.
“We’ve wanted the game, now we’re on level games with everyone but we had to take the three points and we did that.
“I feel the team gets stronger in the second part of the season and they have started that way.
“There are still 15 games to go, we’ve got a nice gap but I never say a cushion. You’ve got to concentrate on winning and let’s see where we are at with five or six games to go.”