Scottish Premiership: Ross County 1 (Hale 43 P) Celtic 2 (Johnston 76, Kuhn 88)
Brendan Rodgers praised his players for keeping up a “Celtic tradition” after they came from behind to clinch a late win against Ross County.
Celtic were trailing to Ronan Hale’s 42nd-minute penalty with just 14 minutes left on the clock and had struggled to test County goalkeeper Ross Laidlaw throughout the game.
But their pressure eventually told when Callum McGregor’s shot went in off team-mate Alistair Johnston following a corner and the right-back sent Nicolas Kuhn away on the counter-attack before the German winger cut in and curled home an 88th-minute winner.
Rodgers was delighted to see his side battle to the end after they followed their 7-1 thrashing at the hands of Borussia Dortmund with a first-half display in Dingwall that lacked a cutting edge.
Poor away form not sidelining Arsenal confidence ahead of Chelsea encounter
Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca confident side ‘going in the right direction’ for Arsenal clash
José Mourinho wants Newcastle manager’s job if Eddie Howe leaves
Ireland boss Heimir Hallgrímsson notes value of Wyscout player-tracking app
“It’s a Celtic tradition, isn’t it? It’s how the game is played at this club,” he said.
“Because if you look over the course of this week, we had thousands of fans turn up in Dortmund. They’ve seen what they’ve seen, which wasn’t great, but they give us great support at the end of the game.
“Now they’re having to come up here for a 12 o’clock kick-off, so the very least you can do is run your heart out right to the very end. That’s what this club’s about. It’s the fabric of this club. You keep going to the end.”
Hale’s retaken penalty stopped Celtic extending their run of clean sheets but they have now won their first seven league games for the first time since 2010, when they managed eight under Neil Lennon.
Rodgers said: “I said at half-time, you are either looking for an easy game or you’re feeling sorry for yourself. But whatever it is, it’s not enough.
“We have to go and impose our way of playing and get the energy back into the game again. And then obviously the second half we were much better.
“It wasn’t very good in the first half and you give a big credit to Ross County and their organisation.
“I don’t think there was a lot happening either way in the game but certainly the onus was on us with the team that has the ball to do more with it.
“But it was too slow and we said that at half-time. We’re a team that can never look for an easy game and it just looked a little bit ponderous and a bit slow and then we didn’t create enough.
“So the second half, especially when the subs come on, we bring a new energy to the game and we get what we deserved in the end.
“The thing I said in the aftermath of the midweek game was that I’ve got absolutely 100 per cent confidence in the resilience of this team. That’s all about grit and determination and fight and we had that in the bucket loads.
“We played seven games now over the course of three competitions in 23 days and the players have won six of those and the loss was against the Champions League finalists. So I tip my hat to them.”
County boss Don Cowie felt his side were on the end of a poor refereeing decision from Kevin Clancy ahead of the winning goal, when Jordan White was penalised for a foul on Luke McCowan midway inside the Celtic half.
“The equaliser was a bit fortunate, and then they score a goal from a foul that I didn’t think was a foul,” he said.
“At the time I didn’t think it was a free-kick, and I’ve seen it again and it’s not.
“It’s up to us to react to that situation. We were slightly stretched, and two passes later they score.
“I’m just disappointed for the boys that they’ve got nothing to show for their efforts in the end.”
