Ange Postecoglou hails Celtic’s patient approach during St Johnstone win as striker Giorgios Giakoumakis breaks scoring duck

Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou was delighted to see Giorgios Giakoumakis break his scoring duck but claimed he would have been happy even if the Greek striker hadn’t scored against St Johnstone.

The Hoops registered their fourth win in a row and kept their third successive clean sheet in the process against last season’s double cup-winners during Saturday’s 2-0 victory at Parkhead.

Giakoumakis broke the deadlock in the first half before Josip Juranovic, making his first start since picking up a hamstring injury last month, slotted home an 80^th minute spot-kick to seal the points.

That match allowed Postecoglou a chance to rotate his starting line-up with players returning from injury and he reckons frontman Giakoumakis now provides him with brilliant attacking options.

He said: “It was good to get minutes into Giorgios and it also allowed us to give a rest to Liel Abada who’s been playing non-stop.

“There’s no doubt it was mentally important for Giorgios. You know what strikers are like – there’s no striker in the world who doesn’t feel good unless he is scoring goals, particularly when you come to a new club and a new environment.

“But for me, whether he scored or not wasn’t going to be as important. I think he did what we needed him to do.

“For him I know getting that goal is going to be pleasing and hopefully he can build from there. You can never be overloaded with options but it’s great to see we have those options in attack now.

“It was good to get Giorgios a start, Juranovic also got 90 after his injury and Mikey Johnston got 30 minutes too.”

Postecoglou has been satisfied with the way his side are playing and starting to build some momentum.

He pinpointed youngster Mikey Johnston as one player who can make a significant contribution now that the winger has recovered from his injury setback.

He added: “It’s pleasing to win but what’s also pleasing is the way we are playing. We are keeping a consistent level of performance and we want to maintain that consistency.

“Our performances have been good in all the games since the break so it’s pleasing but we have just got to keep going.

“We had to be disciplined (against St Johnstone) and patient with our football and I felt we were. There weren’t many times we got frustrated or over-played things.

“We stayed calm and composed and we were clinical when we did get the chance. That was key, we took our chances really well.

“I was pleased to see Mikey back because he looked really good in pre-season.

“I know how talented he is but they key for him was to get his body healthy and to be really patient with him.

“He’s a talented player and he’s now getting more game time. The way we play I know he can have a huge impact for us, he just needs to stay healthy and keep improving his game.

“Hopefully James Forrest is not too far away either. From that point of view it’s certainly helpful to have these guys because we are going to need a strong squad.

“I have already seen how challenging it is for sure when we are missing players so having some back is good.”