Celtic showed a side of their character they haven’t had to rely on too much this season as they added resolve to their undoubted skills to overcome a tricky Ross County outfit while the clock ate up the minutes. Behind to a first-half penalty, the Hoops rose to the demands in the second-half, and the expected 60th-minute substitutions paved the way to maintaining Celtic’s magnificent start to the SPFL campaign. Brendan Rodgers said: “I mentioned it during the week it’s a team with a real resilience as well as being a really good football team. “And I think we had to show that in the second half. In the first half we were too slow, there was nothing in the game, we had all the ball, but there wasn’t enough penetration. “There wasn’t enough movement and we weren’t really doing anything in the game. Obviously we gave away the penalty, so Ross County were given something to hang on to. ‘But, the second half was much more what we wanted to see and we thoroughly deserved the win.’ “We weren’t running enough and too slow on the ball. We play with a touch-pass tempo, but we were having too many touches before passing it. “So that slowed our game down and then obviously those runs off the ball, we weren’t making those sacrificial runs. “We looked like we were looking for an easy game, and that’s not what this team is about.” The tide turned, though, after the break and the tempo was upped further when the substitutions were made. The manager added: “In the second half, especially with the introduction of the new players coming in, we got real good energy in the game, started to run more, started moving more and then our quality paid off in the end. “We knew that anyway. When you play the number of games that we do, to have that bench, to be able to increase the intensity, is really important for us. “The guys that came in were excellent, but we’ve had that in other games. We’ve had games where the guys have come in, a bit like St Johnstone – those guys come on and then affect the game “It’s a fantastic win for us. Ross County have shown that they are a tough team to break down here at home. So it’s really, really good. “We’ve had a really busy period – we’ve played seven games in 23 days, and we’ve won six of those, we lost to the Champions League finalists, so we’ll get better from that. “But I can sit back and look and think what a great start the players have made this season, we’ve got 38 finals, and that’s our seventh final, and we’ve won it.”FixturesRoss County Vs. Celtic – Sun, Oct 6th 2024, 12:00
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