Brendan Rodgers has explained his “blast” at Celtic kit man Stevie Wright as he tried to make light of the incident at Hampden last weekend.
Rodgers was captured on TV breaking from the huddle of Hoops players were he was offering them key information for the tie which was on a knife-edge as he marched over to berate the the kit controller who had taken it upon himself to offer Paulo Bernardo advice during half-time in extra time of the Scottish Cup semi-final victory over Aberdeen.
Rodgers was asked what the message was to his players during the pressure moment ahead of spot kicks and he laughed: "Don’t let your kit man near them! Stevie got a wee bit of a blast from me didn’t he, bless him. He’s a good guy Stevie Wright, he’s Celtic daft, he's Celtic mad. But you've got to know your place. The work is obviously prepared in terms who was going to take the penalties and the order. Everything else that had gone on before, because we'd had to come from behind and then conceding equalisers so that could really affect your mentality but that's gone. Don't worry about that. Now we've got to focus in on the opportunity to get to the final which is to stick to the plan over the previous couple of days and the players did that brilliantly. The quality of penalties was very good."
The former Liverpool boss has also reiterated his belief that his team are coming into their own at the end of the season in their pursuit of a league and cup double. Speaking to Sky Sports, he added: "This period of the season has always been seen as where Celtic get their trophy heads on.
"And that is about concentration, mentality and bringing performance levels to the game. That is something that has been consistently done over a period of time and is what I would expect in these remaining games."
