Joe Hart is adamant Celtic will stay cool and calm in the face of their first title setback. The Parkhead No.1 insists the first Premiership defeat in 38 games won’t linger or derail the champions’ focus as they plan to hit straight back.
Ange Postecoglou’s team’s lead at the top of the table was trimmed to just two points entering the first international break of the season following a shock loss at St Mirren. The first reverse in almost a year of top-flight action was as unexpected as it was merited after a below-par display in Paisley.
However, Hart is clear that emotions remain firmly in check within the group and the mindset is not overly altered or affected when dealing with either highs or lows. The Celtic keeper says the unit will assess the mistakes that were made in the 2-0 loss and have the maturity to dust themselves down and use any lessons to be better in the future.
Hart said: “Look we’ve got a guy (Postecoglou) in charge of us who that is the only thing that he is going to allow. He’s got senior players, like myself. It’s the only way you can look at it. You have got to be cool and calm in both the good and the bad and be ready to go again because, if you are not ready to go again, someone else will be.”
Postecoglou was level headed and honest in the aftermath of the Saints stunner and Hart continued: “We’re not emotional. You don’t see him getting too carried away when we have won however many on the spin. It was a tough result for the team on Sunday, tough to take, but we all represent each other and we are ready to push and go again.
“Our mindset doesn’t change. We are building something where we want to just keep going and just keep trying to get the best out of each other and get the best as a team. That was no different in the game against St Mirren and it’ll be no different when we go into our next game.”
Having been on the unbeaten league run for one day short of a full year, the impressive and lengthy sequence was concluded by Stephen Robinson’s team. But, when it was put to Hart that nothing lasts forever and that the run was inevitably going to come to an end at some point, he said: “Nothing has come to an end.
“We win, we lose, we keep going and we keep pushing and it’s now onto the next. You always want more. It’s just not always quite that easy. It’s not set up for everything to be easy for us. We have shown that we are prepared to roll our sleeves up. It wasn’t meant to be against St Mirren, but we go again.”
Celtic will have to wait until Saturday week before getting their campaign going again with a home match against Motherwell. But Hart harbours no frustration at the timing of the international break as he said: “It’s part of life and top-level football. You are with international players, good luck to them. Hope they stay safe, we get them back and then we go again.”
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