We can’t take our eyes off the prize
POSTECOGLOU TELLS CELTIC TO KEEP FOCUS AFTER OLD FIRM LOSS
OThe road to success is not downhill. It requires effort every step
VER recent months, the momentum behind Celtic only seemed to grow. It was turbo-boosted by their business in the January transfer window and brought a potential clean sweep of domestic prizes into sight.
Then came Sunday. While still strong favourites to seal the Premiership title, there could be no mistaking the shuddering setback of the Ange Postecogloudriven juggernaut being halted at Hampden.
It wasn’t just that Celtic lost the Old Firm Scottish Cup semi-final. They never really turned the ignition key on their performance. Yes, they were a goal up and might even have snatched a second but few would dispute that Rangers were worthy winners after extratime. To their credit, neither Postecoglou (pictured below) nor captain Callum McGregor sought to. No excuses were made.
They didn’t try and bemoan luck or any other factor other than those under their own control.
The challenge now is to get the wheels rolling again. And quickly. A possible Treble may have vanished but the obvious desire is to close out the league as quickly as possible.
A six-point lead is held with five games remaining. Victory over Ross County in Dingwall on Sunday is the only way to begin assuaging the bitter disappointment felt at Hampden.
Postecoglou is blunt about the scale of that blow. Yet he remains philosophical about the wider picture. He never expected a cruise towards the finishing line.
Having coaxed his squad to overcome a distinctly awkward start to the season, the Australian will now seek to repeat the process and ensure their prime objective is fulfilled in the league.
‘The road to success is not downhill, mate,’ considered
Postecoglou. ‘It requires effort every single step of the way.
‘Sometimes, you’ll stumble and we’ve stumbled a few times this year as a group — and we’ve managed to bounce back quickly.
‘That’s what we’ve got to do again, but just because it’s happened in the past doesn’t mean it’s going to happen in the future.
‘What you do know is that we’re capable of it, and we’ve used it the right way in the past, and we use this disappointment in the right way for next week.’
Postecoglou didn’t lose sight of the scale of the task in front of him even as an unbeaten domestic record piled up to 33 matches. Each of those brought a test of some description. It was only on Sunday that Celtic found one they couldn’t pass.
‘I never thought about Trebles or Doubles. That’s language that’s used here,’ stressed Postecoglou. ‘I’ve never thought about that in my career and I won’t think about it now.
‘Every competition is an opportunity to be successful. For us at the moment, we’ve won one trophy (the League Cup) this year. That’s back at Celtic Park.
‘Obviously, our main goal this year was to become champions, and that’s still in our hands. We’ve got five games to do that and that’s what we’ve got to focus on.’
As much as the derby defeat hurt, it could hardly wipe out the progress made to this point. Postecoglou inherited a club mired in confusion after imploding in a botched pursuit of ten in a row the previous term. When Dominic McKay then exited as chief executive after just 72 days at the helm, it appeared the continuing upheaval might ultimately undermine the new manager and his attempts to rebuild. Postecoglou, however, put Celtic back on an even keel. He developed a squad capable of admirable consistency — at least against Scottish opposition — prior to the weekend blow. A commanding position has also been constructed in the Premiership.
Yet the 56-year-old doesn’t think it gives him or his players a free pass for losing the semi-final.
Asked if he’d have bitten your hand off to be offered this situation last summer, Postecoglou said: ‘No, I don’t think so, because I think that is selling ourselves short and our supporters short.
‘Our supporters came to Hampden hoping to see us get to another final. I don’t think you can take these opportunities for granted. You don’t just assume they’re going to come around every
year. All of them are hard-earned, and, when they come around, you want to take them.
‘I don’t think we have lost perspective and I don’t think it’s a matter of tailoring your language to make sure the players feel good about it.
‘The reality of it is we were in a semi-final, a tight game as we knew it would be — and, unfortunately, we didn’t progress.
‘That doesn’t change anything about next week, whether we won or not. The goal is still the same.’
One perplexing aspect of the weekend match-up was the way Rangers — put through 120 minutes against Braga last Thursday evening — looked the stronger and fitter side when the semi-final entered extra-time.
Celtic had a clear week of preparation but seemed leggy. Their usual spark was absent. Postecoglou last week spoke of hard work at the training ground, leading to questions about whether the build-up had been overdone.
Quizzed on why Rangers were able to press more, leaving Celtic looking like the team who’d played in midweek, Postecoglou replied: ‘I didn’t see it that way. They did press us, but I still thought we had our moments to play through, and we did.
‘In these kind of games, you know you’ve got to stay strong, get through the sort of sticky patches and wait for your moments to take advantage. I don’t think either side dominated. It was pretty even, and it was decided by one moment.’