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Daily Record
Daily Record
Sport
Michael Gannon

Ange Postecoglou admits Rangers win caused a sleepless night as he targets more 'special' Celtic moments

Ange Postecoglou admitted he’’s dreaming of more special occasions with Celtic – despite having a sleepless night after the Old Firm demolition job.

The Hoops are looking to build on the win over Rangers at Motherwell after reaching the top of the Premiership table.

But Postecoglou is aiming to create more "special moments" for the fans after their derby dominance.

He said: “It was obviously a good night, the whole experience from the atmosphere created by our supporters to understanding the consequences of the result against the opposition we were playing.

“The most important thing was our performance. It was a nice one.

“I got home but didn’t sleep for quite a while. You want to digest it all and understand it all from a football perspective.

“Just to take it all in, because you need to get up the next day and get on with the next one.

“It’s the nature of football and the nature of my personality. I like moving on quickly because if that was special, I want to start work on the next special one.

“There will be plenty of time in my old age to reflect on these things. That’s not me dismissing it.

“You have to enjoy it and I said to the players they should enjoy their performance and what they created the other night.

“But the key is do they want more of that? I certainly do. I fully want it for this football club.

“Me moving on is not me forcing myself to draw a line under the excitement. It’s more, what can we do next that creates another special moment for the club.”

Postecoglou was hailed by the support at the end – but he admitted he was embarrassed by the adulation.

He said: “The performance of the boys was worthy of that support. I took my time acknowledging them after the game because it was important we did that.

“I realise in the end I took too long because I was the only one out there! I had to run off pretty quickly, I was a bit embarrassed by it!

“As I was walking around, I noticed they were all still there. None of them had left early. It was important to acknowledge them and just take it in and experience it for myself.

“It was a special night and something you want to store in the memory bank to recall in your retiring years.”

(SNS Group)

Postecoglou’s men are firing on all cylinders – and he insisted his squad have been inspired by key men busting a gut for the team.

Captain Callum McGregor ran the show against Gers with a mark after suffering a broken cheekbone less than two weeks previous.

And Daizen Maeda jetted back on the day of the game to take a seat on the bench.

Postecoglou – who has Tom Rogic back from international duty – said: “I think it sums up the group of players we’ve got here. They are just determined to be successful and they will do whatever it takes to do that.

“Because what we know is that success doesn’t come easy. You have to make sacrifices, you have to put yourself out there at times when you’re not 100 percent, because that’s the nature of sport.

“When you’ve got a leader like Callum doing that then there’s no excuses for anyone else, because he’s not just talking the talk, he’s walking it as well and that’s inspiring.

“The same goes for Daizen. I would have accepted it if both those guys weren’t part of Wednesday night because of their situations, but it was a really short conversation.

“They just said ‘no, we really want to be involved’, so it’s a credit to both of them.

“That’s the environment we really try to encourage here every day, because sometimes even in training you come in and you’re not buzzing, you’re not feeling 100 percent.

“But you can’t train the way we do unless you give everything, so the players suck it up, they get out there and they go for it.

“They get encouraged by their teammates and that’s the environment we want to see.”

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