Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou insists his late father will be looking down proud of the free-flowing style he's installed at Parkhead in a matter of weeks.
The team that faltered to Hearts on opening day came into Sunday's Premier Sports Cup clash with revenge on their mind and it was nowhere near as close a contest as the 3-2 scoreline suggested with another home tie now coming up for the Hoops against Raith Rovers.
Postecoglou has long spoken of how his paternal footballing inspiration growing up – and how he judges his own team's performance and playing style based on how his dad would have viewed it.
And the verdict was overwhelmingly positive, particularly after an hour of non-stop Celtic pressure that should have had the tie out of sight with Odsonne Edouard and Stephen Welsh on the scoresheet.
Liam Boyce hit back with a penalty but Kyogo Furuhashi quickly restored the two-goal advantage before Aaron McEneff's late consolation.
Speaking to Premier Sports, Postecoglou said: "The scoreline is the scoreline, our football for the first 60 minutes was outstanding.
"Especially in the first half, it was as good as we've played all year.
"We didn't get the rewards for that, some of it was self-inflicted, we had some good chances we didn't take and others were good saves.
"It was great to see because we're in the middle of a heavy schedule. We're relying on the same core of players but they're putting in a good shift.
"I've said a few times, my old man is up there somewhere.
"He was the one, if I could get him excited with the teams I was producing then that was enough for me.
"And I think he would have been pretty pleased with what he saw in the first half today."
The manager insists there was no magic button he pressed after the disappointment of crashing out of the Champions League to turn around his side's fortunes.
Rather, he believes the results are beginning to match the performances as his players better themselves in every game.
He now sees Wednesday night's Europa League play-off at home to AZ Alkmaar as another opportunity to do just that.
Postecoglou added: "Our goal is to keep improving our football and the Midjylland games were disappointing in terms of us getting eliminated from the Champions League.
"But our performances weren't too bad. We just weren't sustaining any level of performance in big games and missing out in big moments.
"Since then what we've tried to do every game is keep improving our football, focus on the stuff we can control and that's another opportunity in the next game, to evolve our football further.
"If we keep doing that we'll build some momentum for the season."
