Celtic had looked down and out against Ross County. They had taken a lead through Liel Abada early in the first half but that was cancelled out by the hosts in the second. And with Carl Starfelt getting a red card, and a very harsh one at that, it had looked like Ange Postecoglou’s side were set to drop two points on the night if not three.
But even when down to 10 men, Celtic did not appear to give up. And they got their reward for that with Anthony Ralston, who is having quite some season, scoring the winner very deep in stoppage time.
The result means that the gap between Celtic and the Rangers remains four points, and the win will also give the side a massive boost ahead of their upcoming Scottish League Cup final against Hibernian on Sunday.
It is safe to say that Postecoglou must have been proud of the never give up attitude that his side showed against Ross County. It was not easy with the amount of first-team stars who are out with injuries and on top of that, they were a man down as well following Starfelt’s red card. As reported by the Daily Record, while speaking after the game, the Celtic manager told BBC Sportsound:
"“With 10 men, we found a way to get a winner and it was just reward for their efforts.“We weren’t settling for anything, at the end we were trying to win the game.“It just shows the spirit of the lads. With 10 men they’re not going to settle for one point.“That’s not what we’re about – they wanted to win that game and did it.”"
This might have been the biggest win of Celtic’s season till now
Celtic deserve a lot of credit for how they have navigated through the month of December.
They have several of their top stars out of action, including both Jota and Kyogo, who have been the club’s talismans this season. But the Hoops have now won all five of their games in December till now.
There is not much time to reflect though. They have a League Cup final against Hibernian this Sunday. This late win should give them a massive confidence boost for that game.