Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
IT SAINT HALF HOT MUM
Celts sizzling as they rout St Johnstone to maintain their blistering start to 2019
CELTIC maintained their impressive start to 2019 by lashing five past St Johnstone without reply to march into the quarterfinals of the Scottish Cup.
Scott Sinclair plundered a hat-trick, with James Forrest notching after Scott Brown found the net with a 35-yard screamer as Saints were put to the sword for the third time in 12 days.
Boss Brendan Rodgers said: “It was another good performance, we didn’t give away too much. We are nearly into mid-february, we haven’t conceded a goal and the players are working very hard. They look fresh and are playing at a really good level.”
Celtic’s win set a new record of 24 cup wins on the spin.
Rodgers added:
“We’d won the four previous games and it was going to be the game that would show their mentality and character because if they didn’t work and aren’t focused and aren’t hungry then it can be a really, really difficult game.
“But they showed their mentality and quality and I said to them after the game they’d broken another record. “I didn’t want to mention it before because they didn’t need it. There are enough demands from me to win.
“The consequence of it is they broke a record and it’s another great tribute to how they’ve been working for the last two and a half years now. “I thought we were very good in the first 20-25 minutes. We were in a good place but then became a wee bit sloppy. We misplaced passes and came out of our shape. We have them an opportunity and Scott Bain made a good save.
“So at half-time we had to re-establish control of the game in terms of our positioning. It allows us to press the game better and sustain more attacks. We were excellent in the second half.”
Rodgers revealed Olivier Ntcham suffered a tight hamstring in the warm up yesterday and wasn’t risked, while Jozo Simunovic was withdrawn at the interval with a bug.
The Hoops boss (inset) hailed Jonny Hayes after the wide man slotted in at left back due to injuries to Kieran Tierney and Emilio Izaguirre.
“Guys like Jonny aren’t playing so much but that’s a testament to how professional and focused they are, that when they are asked to come in and play, they can do it like Jonny did. He was full of energy, created a goal and defended well.
“There were some options for him in January but I told him I couldn’t let him go. If he was at any other team, he’d probably be playing every week with his qualities.”