Brendan Rodgers believes Celtic set standard for season run-in with Killie rout

Brendan Rodgers believes Celtic will go into next week’s Scottish Gas Scottish Cup semi-final against St Johnstone with the benchmark set in Saturday’s 5-1 win over Kilmarnock.

The Hoops boss was angry with his players following last week’s 1-0 defeat by the William Hill Premiership’s bottom side.

However, the Northern Irishman was more than happy with his side’s response as they blew Killie away at the start of the game by scoring four goals in 24 minutes from midfielder Reo Hatate, striker Daizen Maeda, defender Cameron Carter-Vickers and Hatate again.

Kilmarnock’s Danny Armstrong pulled a goal back just before the half-hour mark but a stoppage-time strike by substitute Anthony Ralston sealed a convincing win and Celtic are on the brink of another title, sitting 15 points ahead of Rangers with 15 points up for grabs in the five post-split games.

But Rodgers is focused on the semi-final as the Hoops close in on a domestic treble and he was delighted with his side’s display and mentality.

He told the club’s official YouTube channel: “The reaction was important for us.

“The overall game is how we want to work, how we want to play.

“I said to the players beforehand that today is about a winning attitude. Mix that with talent and then we’ll always play with big quality.

“For large parts of the season that’s what we’ve done, so today sets the standard for us for the remainder of the season.

“It was a brilliant reaction from the players and a wonderful performance.

“It all comes from the mentality and ambition.

“The players who came in to the team were brilliant. Everything which is good about this team we seen today.”

Rodgers was particularly pleased with left-back Greg Taylor, who returned to the starting line-up along Liam Scales, Adam Idah and James Forrest.

He said: “He was amazing. He was absolutely brilliant. I thought last week we were too mechanical. And that’s not what this team is. We are about mobility, quality.

“And he, coming into the team, gave us all of that. I thought he was absolutely brilliant. And played the role that he should play.

“I thought Liam Scales was very good. He’s competitive, he’s strong. Won his headers.

“So I thought he was very good. Jamesy, it’s Jamesy Forrest. Just massive quality. And you need that when it’s games like that and it’s man-marking. He can roll on the inside but beat them on the outside. Just his ability is at such a high level domestically.

“And Adam came in, provided the platform for the team. We needed a running team. And that’s why we made the changes.”

Kilmarnock ended the day in 10th place with 35 points, six ahead of basement side St Johnstone and one ahead of second-bottom Dundee, who play Hibernian at Easter Road on Sunday.

With five fixtures remaining, boss Derek McInnes is determined that his side will survive the end of season battle for survival.

He said: “It is hard to take many positives from it.

“We’ve just now got to show that with the squad that we’ve got, we are better than the teams around about us.

“Because everybody in that bottom six is in a fight, and can’t breathe easy.

“We’ve just got to make sure we win those fights.”