PERFECTIONIST Ange Postecoglou was not entirely satisfied with Celtic’s 4-1 win over St Johnstone at McDiarmid Park this afternoon.
The Hoops boss saw Kyogo Furuhashi, with his 22nd strike of a prolific campaign, Aaron Mooy and substitute David Turnbull add to Andy Considine’s 13th minute own goal as the champions maintained their nine-point advantage at the Premiership pinnacle.
The three-goal difference in the final scoreline also took the Parkhead side to a monumental 25-goal superiority over nearest challengers Rangers, who beat Ross County 2-1 at Ibrox yesterday.
IN CONTROL…it’s ball Bhoy Ange Postecoglou during a break in play.
The visitors were 3-1 ahead by half-time and Postecoglou said: “Those early goals were important because it gave us a foothold in the game.”
But he immediately observed: “We’re disappointed to concede the one we did, but we reacted to it in the right manner.”
Following six successive clean sheets, Joe Hart was forced to retrieve the ball from the back of his net in the 25th minute. The Hoops keeper was beaten with a whiplash drive from Drey Wright from outside the box which swept past him low to his right.
The 35-year-old 75 times-capped England international No.1 was clearly unhappy at conceding a goal after such a good sequence of shut-outs.
The Perth playing surface was rutted and bumpy and Postecoglou, speaking to Sky Sports, said: “I’m really pleased because the conditions weren’t easy, particularly the pitch.
THE START OF THE FOUR-GOAL LANDSLIDE…unfortunate Andy Considine deflects a low cross from Kyogo Furuhashi past his own keeper Remy Matthews with Reo Hatate getting a close-up view.
“We had to overcome that and not steer too far away from our football and I thought we did that.
“Because of the nature of the game, there were times when we had to defend and I thought we did that really well, too, which was good to see and we got four good goals.
“As the game went on the pitch got more and more cut up which meant there were going to be more mistakes and make it harder for us to move the ball quickly, but I still thought some of our football was excellent.”
It was a nightmare afternoon for Saints’ veteran defender Considine who was making his 600th club appearance after his long service at Aberdeen before joining up at Perth.
As well as the unlucky deflection for the opening goal, the centre-back was red-carded in stoppage-time by referee David Dickinson for a last-man foul on substitute Oh Hyeon-gyu.
Rubbing salt into the wounds, Turnbull netted the fourth goal after being set up by Matt O’Riley from the deadball kick.
