Postecoglou hails Parkhead players’ efforts

ANGE Postecoglou hailed his Celtic players’ “extraordinary effort” in brushing off a slow start to the season to move to the cusp of league glory.

Celtic’s 4-1 victory over Hearts put the cinch Premiership out of the realistic grasp of defending champions Rangers. Goals from Daizen Maeda, Kyogo Furuhashi, Matt O’Riley and Giorgos Giakoumakis sparked celebrations among the home support, although no one within the club was declaring themselves champions just yet.

It was fitting that Celtic came back strongly from an early blow – when Ellis Simms netted for Hearts inside three minutes – as that has been the story of their season. Defeats against Hearts, Rangers and

Livingston in their first three away games, followed by a home draw with Dundee United, left Celtic in sixth place with 10 points from seven matches.

Few would have foreseen a newly-rebuilt Celtic team going on an unbeaten run from that point that now extends to 30 matches and getting on top of a Rangers side which went through last season’s campaign undefeated.

Postecoglou (inset) said: “I’m sure when the story is written of the season, I think people will probably reflect that it’s been a fairly outstanding effort on all fronts, no doubt. I know I talk a lot about this is just the first step of the rebuild and we are going to be better but I don’t say that to dismiss the extraordinary effort it has taken this year and the achievement of this group of players.”

Postecoglou faced questions about their title hopes after that Dundee United draw on September 26 and he accepts his players have been competing under major pressure since. “The key to that for us has been discipline,” he said. “As much as people wanted us to look further ahead or think about consequences, and it is a cliche when you go ‘one game at a time’, we really stuck to that.”