Ange Postecoglou praises Celtic's 'priceless' character after derby draw

Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou believes his players are showing “priceless” character as they pursue the league trophy, and urged them to deliver a strong finish to win the Premiership title.

The Australian saw his side take the lead against rivals Rangers through a first half goal from Jota, only to be pegged back after the break when Fashion Sakala scored.

A 1-1 draw means that with three games remaining, Celtic are six points clear at the top, with a superior goal difference in their favour as well.

Postecoglou doesn’t believe the title is won yet but knows his side hold a significant advantage.

“I don’t know about unassailable but we are in a strong position,” he said.

“We have three games to go, two of them at home. We have been so strong at home all year, including today, we didn’t lose.

“From our perspective it gives us a great opportunity to take advantage of the position we are in. The thing with us, we don’t want to sort of just get there, we want to finish strong and we have three games to do that.”

Though the derby result takes the team a step closer to their goal, the manager said nobody was celebrating anything, then revealed that he was impressed with the psychological strength his players were showing.

“The boys are not jubilant,” he said. “They understand that they had to work hard today to get something out of it.

“We will keep improving as a football team but the character they are showing at the moment, that’s priceless.

“That’s what is going to hold us in good stead not just for this year but for years to come if we keep having that mentality of taking on every challenge before us and making sure we don’t yield and we don’t give up at any stage.

“I think they are a determined lot and they are determined to finish the season strongly.”

Rangers manager Giovanni van Bronckhorst told Sky Sports his side had fallen short of the result they needed.

“I think only a win today would give us a chance to close the gap even more,” he said. “It’s still six points with the goal difference in favour of Celtic so it will be more difficult after today.

“As I said before the game, we needed a win to close the gap to three points. We didn’t, we drew, but I couldn’t have asked for more from my players, what they have given.

“Especially in the second half, we pushed really hard to come back into the game, which we did, and get good opportunities to win this game in the final 10 or 12 minutes.

“Definitely second half you saw, after 60-65 minutes, we were getting stronger and stronger.

“We did very well in those moments, created great chances, hit the post. What can you ask for more?

“The only thing is we didn’t score the big chances we had.

“We did everything we could to win this game but in the end we are two points short.”