Twenty-four hours later, a hat-trick from Martin Boyle saw the Leith club advance at the expense of their Ibrox opponents and the Hoops chief, speaking to Celtic TV, added: “In a Cup Final, your opposition is always tricky because the one thing you know about a Cup Final is that you can forget recent form. Within seven minutes, the Scotland international had thumped in the winner. Postecoglou sent on James Forrest against St Johnstone in the semi-final with the game scoreless. Now we can concentrate on the game ahead.”
“They’ve handled that really well, culminating in the other night where we won a game of football against the odds in terms of the circumstances on the night and that gives them a positive feeling. However, with our schedule, and with the challenges we’ve had in recent weeks around injuries and players available, for our preparations it was definitely in our interests just to get the players focused on the next game and the next challenge. “You can’t go into it and say it’s just another game because it’s not, so you want the players prepared for that. “It’s always a balancing act with these things because the reality of it is – it’s a big game and you can’t ignore that fact. “I’m sure it will be a great occasion, the atmosphere will be sensational and, ultimately, it will be about us preparing well and giving the best of ourselves as we can on the day and, hopefully, that proves successful.ĬUP FINAL COUNTDOWN…Ange Postecoglou is covering all bases. “When I joined this football club, that was obviously the aim and I was under no illusions that I was to try and bring success to this football club and the first opportunity for that will be Sunday. “So, hopefully, we’ll give a good account of ourselves and take it. And, particularly after last year, it’s something we want to get back to doing as a football club and this our first opportunity. “It’s an opportunity for this club to win a trophy and get some silverware. I enjoyed the semi-final, the trip to Hampden and everything that entails, so it should be a special day. The Hoops gaffer said: “I’m looking forward to it.