Ange Postecoglou admitted Celtic shouldn’t have needed their late, late show to kill off St Johnstone but was happy to see that the never-say-die attitude they showed last season is still there if needed.
Giorgos Giakoumakis scored in the last of five minutes of injury time at McDiarmid Park after Alex Mitchell looked to have earned a point for the Perth men with his first senior goal just 70 seconds before the Greek stuck.
Celtic dominated the possession but only had Andy Considine’s own goal to show for it and then had Joe Hart to thank for touching substitute Stevie May’s effort onto the post with Connor McLennan also squandering a golden chance before Mitchell netted.
That looked to have punished the champions for their profligacy but Giakoumakis had the final say and Postecoglou told Sky Sports: “That’s the nature of football. We should have put the game to bed a lot earlier and at 1-0 the opposition always feel they’re in it and it doesn’t take much. A scramble in the box, they’ve got threats from set pieces and we concede late.
“Credit to the lads, we went there a few times last year and it’s good to know if required it’s still there. You have to have that through the course of the season. We’d love everything to run smoothly and it’s a game we really should have finished off a lot earlier. We went to the last minute but it’s important to show that character.
“It’s a period we’re going through just now - creating chances and not taking them. Earlier in the season we were taking everything coming our way. That’s the nature of football and we just have persevere and persist with what we’re doing and as long as we’re creating the chances eventually it will come.
“It’s a lot harder when you’re struggling to create chances because then you’re looking for solutions out there. We had some really good chances and on any other day would have finished the game off.
“There will be games like this during the course of the season and it’s important when they do come along that we show the character that we did today.”
Hart came under fire in midweek for his blunder against RB Leipzig but Postecoglou had the Englishman thank for denying May, while he explained Jota’s withdrawal at the break. He said: “That’s Joe’s role in our team. Our goalkeeper is never usually too busy but we need him for the big moments and he’s always delivered. If we’re talking about saves and missed chances I think the other end is more important for us. Jota was a bit of fatigue. The plan was not to play him for too long as he’s played a lot of football but there’s no concern there.”
