Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Daily Record
Daily Record
Sport
Ben Banks

Ange Postecoglou gives Celtic VAR debate cold shoulder as he bigs up EPL level star he opened the door for

Ange Postecoglou says there's no point getting embroiled in VAR chat after a comfortable 2-0 win for Celtic over Dundee United.

The champions wore their Tannadice hosts down in Premiership action and were made to wait until the second half before Jota headed them into a lead. Aaron Mooy's penalty shortly after sealed things on a day of minimal fuss for the Australian manager, who's side are back on top of the league by nine points.

Referee Don Robertson was told to head to the VAR monitor after he awarded a penalty for a challenge by Tangerines goalkeeper Mark Birighitti on Kyogo prior to half-time, but his decision to claim a foul was soon changed. He then gave a spot-kick to Celtic after a Kieran Freeman handball initially went unpunished in the box, but Postecoglou prefers to hold his tongue on tech matter. He told Sky Sports: "'Look mate, I've had my say on it, we've just got to let it roll now. All managers would probably say the same thing about it.

"From my perspective I've kind of made a conscious decision a few games back to concentrate on football. I don't think there is any point to it (criticising VAR), it is quite obvious there are still some issues there.

"All we can do is play the football we need to play to put the result beyond doubt. It's more than momentum, we want to finish the season stronger than we did the first half of the year.

"We've been really good since the break with consistency in our performances. Our results, and our defensive work has been outstanding the last few weeks.

"Our squad is really strong at the moment. We only have Anthony Ralston out injured and he's back in the next week or so and that tells me we should finish the season strongly and that has got to be our aim."

Mooy provided an assist for Jota before his penalty won the match in another classy display by the Australian midfielder. And his boss reckons the former Brighton midfielder showed he's Premier League class.

He added: "He's been going really well since the World Cup, I think the key thing for him is to build up his fitness back to the level I know he can get to. He's a quality player, I mean in any other universe he would probably still be playing in the English Premier League.

"We were lucky he kind of fell on our doorstep. Luckily he fell on a doorstep which was familiar to him and I was happy to open the door.

"I have known Aaron since he was a young kid and he has got this great capacity to keep working, he runs all day. If you look at before he came to us he didn't play much and I am kind of hoping he saved it up for the rest of his career."

READ NEXT

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.