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Celtic slam SEVEN past Saints but Ange insists side haven’t peaked yet
ANGE POSTECOGLOU claimed Celtic are still working towards peak form even after a seven-goal blitz took his team nine points clear at the Premiership summit.
A blistering performance saw the Parkhead side rack up their biggest win of the season against St Johnstone on a day that also marked star striker Kyogo Furuhashi’s long-awaited return from injury.
Six days on from winning a hard-fought derby at Ibrox, Celtic were relentless in their 7-0 victory, a consequence, says Postecoglou, of having a nearly full-strength squad available.
‘It was a danger game for us because St Johnstone have been on good form and are hard to break down,’ said the Celtic manager.
‘But what we keep talking about is playing our best football and trying to peak which was always our goal for this time of the year.
‘We need to keep our head down, put the accelerator down and, if we keep playing as we did today, we will have a good chance.
‘We have the healthiest squad we have had all year, our training levels are at the best they have
been and there are no midweek games so those things are in our favour.’
A hamstring injury picked up by goalscorer Giorgos Giakoumakis midway through the first half could stretch Postecoglou’s striking options ahead of next weekend’s Scottish Cup semi-final against Rangers. However, he claimed he will not risk Kyogo from the start at Hampden.
He added: ‘Whenever somebody is out for a significant amount of time you do have to be careful.
‘I wouldn’t think we will be throwing him in next week. I doubt he’ll start but if we can get him some more game time in the next couple of weeks you’d think he would be ready to go for the last three or four games.’
The Japanese striker climbed off the bench midway through the second half of yesterday’s match for his first appearance since
Boxing Day and made an instant impact, contributing a key pass to the move which saw Liel Abada claim the seventh goal.
‘I’m pleased for Kyogo because he is a great guy and a super footballer,’ continued Postecoglou.
‘He was so important for us at the beginning of the year when we really needed somebody to step up.
‘The whole group has watched him work really hard on his own in rehab so it was great to get him back out there.
‘Giako felt a twinge in his hamstring so we won’t really know until we assess him. It’s disappointing because he has carried an enormous load for us these past few weeks and worked really hard. Hopefully it’s not something that keeps him out too long in the run-in.’
Postecoglou had started with the same team that won at Ibrox last weekend but took Tom Rogic off at half-time.
His replacement Matt O’Riley went on to score twice, and the manager revealed the change was designed to give the new Danish Under-21 cap some game time.
He continued: ‘Tom is fine, it was just a decision of mine. He had done his work and I was pretty keen to get Matty some game time after he had a bit of a false start last week, coming on and then off.
‘I am mindful of how hard all these guys are working and I want to give them opportunities in case we need them.’
He added: ‘We have 95 minutes every week to produce something memorable for our supporters so why waste a minute of it?
‘It doesn’t matter what the scoreline is or where the game is at, if there is a moment we can produce a piece of magic for our supporters, let’s go and take it.
‘But it’s not like the players roll out there and it just happens. They worked their socks off today.’