Neil Lennon has revealed that there were tears in his dressing room after the League Cup Final win at Hampden.
The match was emotionally draining as Celtic hung on to Chris Jullien’s goal with the last half hour played out with 10 men.
Jonny Hayes was less than 100% fit at the start of the match but having used all three substitutes the Irishman and Jullien both suffered injuries that required lengthy treatment.
The second half seemed to last forever, when six minutes were added on Celtic dug even deeper to see the match through with relief mixing with joy when the final whistle eventually blew.
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When we do analyse it, we may look at it we may look at the weight of expectations on them. The expectations were big on them, some of them were in tears after the game with relief more than anything else, with emotion.
But I also think that you have to go through a bad performance, overcome it which they did do and come out the other side and I think that psychologically it will be huge for them, absolutely huge.
With Celtic’s place in the last 32 of the Europa League already secured Lennon will rest most of his Hampden heroes from Thursday’s match away to Cluj.
Tom Rogic, Olivier Ntcham and Leigh Griffiths look like getting starting places as Lennon gears his squad up for what looks like a critical stage in the SPFL title race.
If Celtic can win all five of their matches between December 15 and 29, they will go into the winter break with at least an eight-point lead at the top of the table.