James makes it 15 seasons to be cheerful

the action was frozen. VAR VA also stepped in to upgrade up James Brown’s yellow ye card to a red after a rrash lunge on Yang as David Da Turnbull struck on the stroke of half-time before be subs Luis Palma and an James Forrest put the shine on it.

Rodgers said: “I was pleased. ple We made a number nu of changes to bring br new energy in the team. tea It’s difficult when they the get the man sent off early ea because it means it’s a game of attack versus ve defence.

“But we had some really rea good chances before be taking the lead.

“I thought the goal that was wa disallowed should have ha been a goal.

“It was two players challenging ch for the ball.

“I don’t know where the foul was and it takes an eternity to find out if it was wa a goal or not.

“The offside looks really rea close. I’d have to see se it again. Our replay on the side I felt it took an eternity for the VAR decisions. So I don’t know about the offside one, it was very close. But the other one, it’s two guys who have jumped for the ball. I don’t know where the foul was.”

Rodgers made six changes to his side from the midweek win against St Mirren with the Champions League clash with Atletico Madrid on Tuesday on his mind. The Hoops boss added: “It was a game where we needed some energy from the guys at the beginning.

“We scored some fantastic goals and their keeper made some brilliant saves. Credit to County, they lose a man so early. You can unravel or stick at it and keep going and they did that.

“The guys came in and worked very hard. It’s about contributing to the performance.

“Oh comes in and works hard. He did really well. He’s simplifying his game. Sometimes you can come and try to force the game but he played it simply, set the game up well and worked very hard.”

Palma scored the pick of the bunch with a second-half stunner and then teed up Forrest for the clincher.

Rodgers said: “He has big quality. It was a brilliant strike. He has that technical quality and confidence to shoot and you see his quality for James’ goal. In that position you pull it back or stand it up. It was a great dink and Jamesie got the third header of his career.”

Rodgers was able to rotate his squad, adding: “We recovered some of our players who have played a lot like Matt O’Riley and Alistair Johnston so it worked really well for us.”