Neil Lennon joked that he could have strangled his goalscorers after today’s 2-0 win over St Johnstone.
Cha Du-Ri and Ki Sung-Yeung scored in injury time to relieve the pressure on Celtic although both men will now be absent for upto a month on international duty at the Asian Cup.
It was another day of frustration for Celtic as they dominated possession without posing a real threat to the visitors goal.
Chances were at a premium with the Koreans scorers amongst the biggest culprits as Celtic stared at a fourth straight home draw.
“I could have strangled both of them today,” Lennon joked. “You fancy Ki to hit the target with his two free kicks and Cha kept getting in to good positions and hitting the first man.
“Cha is under-rated, he keeps getting in there and it was a marvellous goal and Ki has been fantastic for the last 12 weeks.
“I have been delighted with their performances over the last couple of months and we will miss them.”
Lennon isn’t short of options to replace his Korean scorers but his back up players are short on match practise.
Scott Brown is an obvious replacement in the middle of the park with Biram Kayal getting a token 90 seconds today after Cha’s break through goal.
Efrain Juarez could deputise in either position but after a long period out of favour the Mexican has been out of the last two matches with flu.
Lennon added: “We’ve got Scott Brown back, Kayal got limited time today, Mark Wilson is fit and we have the option of Juarez who is coming off the back of a virus and should be ok for the Motherwell match
Looking at his side’s performance over the Celtic boss admitted: “Maybe with the recent results there’s an anxiety there but hopefully this will be the turning point as far as the home form is concerned.
“We had to wait a long time for the first goal, if we’d got that earlier you never know what might have happened today but it’s a win and keeps us well in touch.
“Cha is an unlikely source but at times his workrate can gets overlooked- he just keeps getting forward and the goal was sublime.
“Then there was a fantastic breakaway, I was pretty pleased with Olivier’s (Kapo) contribution, it was a perfectly weighted pass and Ki showed a good finish.”
Follow Video Celts on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube