Brendan Rodgers names 'special' Celtic player and gives 'aye it does' response to tantalising treble poser

The holders were far too strong for Saints, with Daizen Maeda scoring twice and Callum McGregor, Adam Idah and Jota getting in on the act to set up a final showdown with Aberdeen on May 24. With the Premier Sports Cup already in the bag and just a point required from their remaining five league matches to win the Premiership, Celtic stand on the cusp of another Scottish football clean sweep.

Such a feat has only been achieved eight times in the history of the club - two of which have come under Rodgers. The Northern Irishman hailed the way his team put a St Johnstone team that beat them two weeks ago to the sword and expects his players to go all-out for a strong end to the season.

Asked if his team has a firm eye on the treble, Rodgers said: “Yes, I think it's been such a long season with so many games. I think we've had one or two performances within that - which is natural - when we weren't quite at our best. But what I've had with two years of this team is just making sure that mentality, you've got to keep pushing. It's the time of the season when the trophies are there. Supporters want it, we want it. You've got to perform.

“So, we're into another final. That was the big ambition from today. It gives us that opportunity against Aberdeen in a month or so's time. But now we go into a little mini-league where we want to be the best in that little league. The next game is Dundee United to get a result to draw a line under the league. So, yes, a really exciting part of the season for us again.”

Rodgers could not hide the motivation of landing a hat-trick of trebles with Celtic. “Clearly,” he said if that was a driving factor. “Yeah it does, aye. 3.1 it'll be as well! Yes, of course it's nice when it comes to you as an individual.”

He continued: “For me it's what's best for Celtic. Us winning the trophies. It's not so much the trophies for me on a personal level, it's the hard work that goes into it. The values that are there and the idea of how we work and how we play and how we coach the players every day. So that's what's more important to me. But of course for the club, the history of the supporters, getting the trophy is key. So for us, we've got two more to win and we'll recover and get ready to finish off the league.”

This was Rodgers’ 14th win at Hampden across all competitions and the manager explained that he treats every visit like his first. “I never get tired of it,” he said. “I know each game it's harder because the teams are really motivated to win. But there'll be nobody more motivated to win than me. To keep the club succeeding, demanding more from the players and our staff. And that's why we have success. Nobody goes through the motions here, at Celtic. We're not too carried away when we win. We have to keep our humility because we have to work even harder. But our ambition is there to win and win for this great club.”

Celtic’s ‘impressive’ performance

On the match itself, Rodgers praised the patience his team showed when dealing with St Johnstone’s low block. They kept trying to create a breakthrough and when McGregor’s opener came, they never looked back.

“Obviously St Johnstone made it really difficult for us in that first period and it is when you’re playing against that sort of man-to-man,” said Rodgers. “You have to work so hard to rotate and be flexible in your movement to create the space. But once we then did that for the first goal and we got the runner off the marker and Callum finishes, then from that we really set the tempo of the game. It was very impressive and a big applause to the players because they were so good in the game.”

Captain McGregor was named man of the match and Rodgers reserved special praise for the midfielder. “He’s just such a special player,” purred Rodgers. “I’ve had him in two spells now and managed him for so many games. He’s a real tactical decision-maker in the game. He sets the tempo for the team. He’s a coach on the pitch for me.

“He knows the patterns that we want and he identifies the moments when to step in because you’re playing against man-to-man, there’s little patterns that frees you up to be going forward and he’s done it so many times for me, especially here at Hampden where he gets such important goals.

“But the first one, he creates the second one and is just a brilliant captain of this club. He was so good today.”

For St Johnstone and their manager Simo Valakari, it was a challenging day at the national stadium. “It was a tough afternoon,” the Finn admitted. “Of course, it wasn’t the result we wanted. We’ve got no complaints. They came with relentless energy. We stayed solid for 30 minutes but made a couple of not so good decisions with the ball. They punished us.

“Celtic were still doing the same things at the end of the game as at the beginning. We did 30 minutes of things we were practicing then we thought: ‘Let’s try something different’. Boom – everything went out of our hands. We need to be patient and know what is working.

“At half-time the cup dream was gone. We only had pride to play for – for this club and our fans. I think in the second half the players showed that character. We deserved to be in this semi-final. It was a fantastic cup journey. Yes, we are sad, and we suffered a bit. But we need to freshen up and go again tomorrow.”