Deila hails important victory

Ronny Deila praised his side’s performance as the Hoops bounced back from a disappointing defeat on Thursday night.

Speaking to media after the game as quoted by BBC Sport after the match Deila said:

Three days after losing in Europe, that is a big one.

We did our job, scored four goals, nice goals as well, and that is the important thing, so there are positives there.

Ross County had one header and that was a big one, but they did not have many chances in the first half. In the second half, we produced a lot of chances as well and scored four beautiful goals.

The Hoops started brightly, but County had the first chance to open the scoring, as hitman Liam Boyce headed narrowly wide early on. The Bhoys again looked vulnerable at cross balls as former Celt, Jackson Irvine and Martin Woods both missed half chances for the Dingwall side.

Celtic, who again slumped to a poor performance on Thursday night, started to look that bit sharper as the half went on, and Tom Rogic was the man who was making things tick.

The Aussie who has been in fine form this season netted the opener with an impressive strike from outside the area. Mikael Lustig’s pass was met by Rogic, who managed to get a yard on the County defender and delivered a thunderous strike, flying past Gary Woods.

Then a flurry of three goals in five minutes brought the game to life after the break. Leigh Griffiths bagged his fifth goal in five matches as he capitalised on a mistake from the County defence and finished crisply into the back of the net. And soon after the restart, Griffiths got his second of the game as he scored from a cutback provided by James Forrest.

Tony Dingwall then pulled one back for County as he too capitalised on some dodgy defending, this time from Celtic. Craig Gordon then produced a great save as Irvine’s header looked to be heading in, as the Hoops again failed to deal with another cross ball situation.

Nir Bitton then headed in Celtic’s fourth from a corner by Stuart Armstrong, as Deila’s men put daylight between themselves and County. In the end, the Hoops ran out comfortable winners as they bounced back from Thursday’s disappointing defeat.

Celtic now head into the International break with a six-point lead at the top of the Premiership. The Hoops return to action in a few weeks’ time, as they play Kilmarnock, before the Europa League crunch match at home to Ajax.