IT was not what the rest of the SPFL Premiership wanted to hear.
Scott Brown, still in his kit, sat down in the Celtic media room drinking from a water bottle, a joke was cracked that it would be his last non-alcoholic drink of the night, and told his audience that Celtic were only going to get better.
They could end this season with a double treble, which is maybe what the Celtic captain had last night, and that would create club history. But it’s not enough. This group want to win again and win it better.
There will be time for some rest between now and the Scottish Cup final, which will be beneficial going into next season, the existing players will improve, they have done since the moment Brendan Rodgers walked through the door, and recruitment will be done.
And, of course, there is Brown himself. A leader of men on and off the park. He won’t allow standards to drop, which is why the rest will know this Celtic team will never tire of losing.
“It was important to lay down a marker for next season because we are going to get better,” said Brown who now has 15 major honours to his name with Celtic.
“There is a lot more time for us now to focus in training. You usually get weeks between games now, so we can work on tactics more, work on how we’re going to press teams.
“Sometimes, when it’s Saturday, Wednesday, Saturday, Wednesday, it’s hard to get consistency in training, to work on our formation and style of play. To get that this week has helped us this week, as well.
“It means a lot to be captain as we’re winning seven in a row. But there is a lot more work ahead now, with a cup final to come as well. We’re going to a warm-weather training camp, so we will be looking forward to that.
“There are places up for grabs in a cup final now, so everyone will be wanting a chance and I’m sure the gaffer will rest a couple of players here and there.
“It’s all about our willingness to win now, to keep producing that form every week. We’ve got a few hard games coming up so we need to stay on it.”
Brown was brilliant yesterday. There are some Celtic fans suggesting that he is the best player for their team against Rangers since Jimmy Johnstone and Bobby Murdoch strutted their stuff.
Henrik Larsson might have something to say about that, as well as Neil Lennon, but the captain was outstanding again.
Put it this way, with Brown on the field there was no way Celtic were going to slip up.
“It’s lovely, the way we did it, in the sunshine, in front of our own fans by beating Rangers,” he said. “It was all about our own performance today. We let ourselves down last week against Hibs but we managed to bounce back.
“We had spoken about bouncing back in style and we did that today. I think it was from the start, the way we pressed, we had worked all week on that in training – how we were going to press, how we would get it straightened out on the park.
“It was always going to be about how we played today. Take nothing away from Rangers but we were outstanding today. Every single player worked as hard as they possibly could, gave everything in the game. And we wanted to win it today, wanted to win the league.”
It was put to Brown that there was one negative about it all; that Celtic could have ended with a record win. That a 7-0 was far from impossible.
“There are no disappointments today,” he said. “Look at the way we played. We’re five-nil up and you’re talking about disappointment? Come on.
‘Yeah, we felt we could have scored more. We created chances, they just didn’t go in. We’ve managed to win 5-0 and you have to take every single positive from that. To be perfectly honest, 5-0 at home to win the league is absolutely outstanding.
That it is and as long as Brown, who is coming up for 33, is about then Celtic are in for many more outstanding days.
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