Celtic’s stand-in boss John Kennedy piled praise on ‘role model’ Scott Brown as the skipper took his final Parkhead bow after 14 years of glory.
Brown’s sumptuous pass set up Odsonne Edouard for the killer second goal as Kennedy’s side romped to a 4-0 win over a Covid hit St Johnstone, who are now scrambling for numbers ahead of the Scottish Cup Final against Hibs on May 22.
David Turnbull, Kris Ajer and sub Karamoko Dembele also scored as they saw off their captain in style.
But the night belonged to Aberdeen bound Brown and Kennedy said: “Scott’s last game was big for us in terms of finding motivation, coming towards the end of a season when there’s not a lot to play for.
“It was quite easy tonight. Scott came out as captain for the last time at Celtic Park, so it was important that the team put in a performance that sent him off in the right manner.
“We knew he would come off after 60 minutes to make changes at that point, that was part of the plan.
“But the saddest thing was that if this was Scott Brown’s game the stadium would have been packed to the rafters and they would have been singing his name the whole game.
“That’s a shame but that’s the world we live in.
“But in terms of the club and the staff and the players on the side ad obviously there are fans outside to send him off.
“I’ve noticed in the last day or so that he has probably taken more in now.
“He has been involved in so much and probably taken it all for granted.
“He has now decided to move on and certainly in the last few days he has spent more time around the offices of the building speaking to more people.
“It’s probably now that he has days left rather than weeks or months that it is hitting home that he should cherish what he has left.
“Certainly for us we will cherish what we have left for the final few days In terms of what he has done as a player and a captain for this club it is absolutely terrific and we have to be grateful for that and hopefully send him off in the right way.
“Players in our academy should use him as a role model, because that’s what he is. But life goes on and we have to adapt.”
Ravaged Saints headed to Glasgow minus eight players in what club sources described afterwards as an ‘ongoing Covid situation’.
And boss Callum Davidson admitted afterwards that he fears his Hampden plans could yet be plunged into further chaos.
Davidson said: “It’s very concerning. I think the whole world is concerned about Covid, so it’s not just me, but it’s not nice situation not be in.
“We’re doing our best with everybody, we’re not experts on it, so we’re trying to get as much help as we can to make sure we’re all safe.
“We followed government guidelines and it’s paramount we keep them safe.
“We’ll get three or four of the players back tomorrow, which is great, and the good news is that they’re all asymptomatic, so they are not suffering at all.
“We must try to stamp it out and we can’t let it fester until next week.
“It was difficult coming to Parkhead, I’m not going to harp on about it, but we hadn’t trained, so the players played on Sunday and came straight here.
“It’s really difficult for a professional athlete to do that, but we had to make sure we were trying to be as safe as we can in our current position.
“I was actually delighted, which sounds really stupid when you’ve been beat 4-0, but I thought the attitude of the players was fantastic.”
