No stopping now, Rodgers warns record-breaking players

Celtic's manager Brendan Rodgers watches his players from the touchline during an UEFA Cha
AFP

Glasgow (AFP) – Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers has challenged his players to continue their impressive run after they extended their unbeaten domestic start to the season to 27 games to set a new club record.

The Scottish champions thrashed Hearts 4-0 on Sunday to eclipse the record set in Celtic’s greatest ever season — the legendary ‘Lisbon Lions’ 1966-67 campaign, which ended with a clean sweep of trophies including the European Cup.

The win moves the Glasgow giants — who have already won the League Cup — 22 points clear of bitter rivals Rangers at the top of the table as they remain firmly on course for a domestic treble.

But after watching his side rack up their 17th league win in a row, the Celtic manager ordered his players not to rest on their laurels and allow complacency to creep into their play.

“It’s a huge honour if you think about the 129-year history of this club,” said Rodgers.

“It’s an incredible run that the players are on. Every accolade that they get they deserve because of their focus, the spirit that they have fostered within the team and the quality of football that they are producing.

“We are very proud but I said to them again we are setting a challenge now going forward, we just have to keep winning.

“That comes from our work on a day-to-day basis, our concentration and just making sure we take care of all the background noise that goes on around it and just focus on our football and our job in the team.

“The players I thought were magnificent today in doing that,” added the 44-year-old Northern Irishman.

The Celtic players won’t have long to dwell on their achievements with third-place Aberdeen the visitors on Wednesday.

Rodgers, who is re-establishing his managerial credentials after taking a slight battering in the latter part of his spell at Liverpool, said the bar would keep being raised higher for his players as they look to end the season unbeaten.

“The idea is to keep going. You have to focus on what you can control which is your training and how you arrive into the game,” he said.

“If you think too much about it then there is too much pressure put on it.

“The players will tell you that I’ve virtually not spoken about it at all because there is already enough pressure to win football matches.

“The consequence for us to playing well and training well is winning games. They are out there on their own now, which is an incredible achievement. But we now have got to look to Wednesday and keep it running, keep winning games and keep setting the bar higher.

“That’s what we’ll continue to do. It’s a great group to work with and I think it’s going to be an exciting period for us going forward. But we’ll take it just one game at a time – that’s our approach.”

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