TONY Ralston has predicted that Ange Postecoglou’s plans to strengthen his squad with players who have Champions League experience will ensure that he and his team mates continue produce their “A games”.
Postecoglou last week stated that he could be forced to offload key personnel in future and warned at the AGM on Friday that supporters might find their favourites being sold “unsettling”.
However, the Greek-Australian expressed hope the money raised would enable him to improve his side with young footballers who have previously featured in Europe’s premier club competition.
Ralston, who came in for Josip Juranovic in the cinch Premeirship game against Dundee United at Parkhead on Saturday and set up Kyogo Furuhashi for a last minute goal, welcomes the challenge of trying to remain involved in the first team.
“When you are a club of this stature, you are always having to have your A game because there is always going to be someone else coming in, another person wanting to take your position,” he said. “That’s part and parcel of not just here, but all football.
“You always want to be at the top of your game anyway. You don’t want any reason to drop your game off. So, yes, it’s extra motivation for everyone involved to stay in and that is the way it works.”
Ralston was confident that Celtic could still win the league match at the weekend when United susbstitue Dylan Levitt netted an 87th minute equaliser and he was proved correct.
But the defender was disappointed that Liam Fox’s side were able to level and confirmed that he and his team mates would examine what went wrong and try to avoid slipping up at such a late stage in future.
“We always analyse our games,” he said. “So we’ll look back on it to see where we went wrong.
“But we don’t really see a game as over until it is finished. We were aware when the goal went in what we had to go. We’ve been there before and credit to the boys for keeping the right mindset and keeping going until the end.
“I flicked it on at the front post (for the Furuhashi goal). It is something that we work on in training and analyse. It is important I get across the front post just in case the corner is underhit and I’m there.
“I’m there and it is effective because it is hard to defend that second ball when it gets flicked on with the pace that is on it and Kyogo has done well to get a touch on it.
“But then we go on and get another one as well and that shows the mentality that, okay, we got potentially a last-minute winner, but we want to keep on going and get as many as we can.”
