JOE HART has praised the Celtic support and admitted he has never seen anything like it when three sides of a stadium were filled by the away support.
Celtic fans were given over 7000 briefs for the game at the Tony Macaroni stadium and they were in fine voice on an afternoon where Celtic weren’t.
The captain Joe Hart recognised the fans commitment and was pragmatic in defeat.
The goalkeeper knew Celtic didn’t turn up as they should and he wanted to make it clear to fans it’s not through a lack of effort. Their away form has been poor and it’s something they have to deal with immediately.
Celtic have three of their next four spell games away from home. If they can turn things around and get nine points from nine on the road in the coming month, things will look a lot better.
For now, Joe hand his teammates have to look at themselves and make sure they are ready for the task ahead.
Before the domestic away days, Celtic have two games at home against Raith Rovers and Dundee Utd. Getting through to the semi final of the competition is a must and three points against Dundee Utd would help.
Here is Joe Hart’s full interview after the game, cited by SunSport.
“Livi did great, we didn’t.
“They took their goal really well and I just don’t think that we penetrated enough.
“It was a tough game for us and I don’t think there’s much more to it than that.
“We didn’t take our few chances and we got punished by a good goal.
“The away form is a fact and we have to deal with that. We’re not running away from it.
“But we’re trying to build something, both what the manager wants from us and what we want. We’re all on the same page.
“It’s the start of the season, but we can’t really afford too many more of these — if any.
“But we’re all pulling in the same direction and believe that will work for us.
“It’s a tough one to take because we’re all trying to do something for this club.
“We had three-quarters of the stadium today for an away game — and I’ve never seen that before in my life.
“The support has shown up today and we didn’t quite bring what they brought to the table.
“It’s a great occasion to play in, and this is a huge club to play for.
“It’s not through a lack of effort — one of the reasons we love football, unfortunately, is because of results like today.
“Any team throughout the world knows they have to grind out results.
“We’re not really under any illusions that we can just turn up and play.
“Nice football, full-backs on the inside, all of that kind of thing — it doesn’t guarantee you’re going to win. It was one of those days when we just couldn’t find the right chance.
“It would be easy for me to say if we score it would be a different game and a different atmosphere — but we didn’t.
“Those are the facts and that’s what we’re trying to deal in.
“Look, there are no excuses. We know what our job is. We know where we stand in this league.
“You can ask for time but we have rocked up for an away game with three-quarters of the support so there are really plenty of things in our favour.
“I’m not saying we’re a work in progress — you haven’t heard that from me.
“I’m saying we’re here to try and win for Celtic, for each other, for the manager and for the fans.”
He added: “I don’t think the fans expect an apology. But we are one — I really feel that at this club. I feel that more than most, we represent them and they represent us.
“I think we need to acknowledge that and if we’re going to do anything as a team we need to acknowledge the tougher moments and stick together.
“We look to Raith on Thursday. It’s a big opportunity for us, a huge cup game.
“We’re in the quarter-finals. That’s the only way you can go.
“Spectators and fans are allowed to look two or three games ahead and look at the repercussions of what we can do at the end of the season. We can’t.
“We live every single game as it is. We lived Thursday night as it was and we lived the build-up to this game.
“We then lived these moments and we’ll put this to bed.
“We’ll analyse this as a team and look to go again on Thursday.
“Being strong is the only mentality we can have, especially if we want to win.
“People want to beat us and we want to beat them.”
