St Mirren boss singles out Celtic trio he thinks are ‘worth a lot of money’

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St Mirren manager Stephen Robinson highlighted Celtic’s outstanding strength in depth after Reo Hatate, Matt O’Riley and Oh Hyeon-Gyu all scored off the bench during Saturday’s 5-1 Scottish Cup last-16 win at Parkhead, speaking to the Buddies website. 

It’s testament to the quality of the squad Ange Postecoglou has constructed in Glasgow that the Celtic boss could afford to leave the likes of Hatate, O’Riley, Liel Abada, James Forrest, Sead Haksabanovic and his shiny new centre-forward out of the starting XI and still be confident of a securing place in the quarter-finals. 

But, with St Mirren making Celtic work, Postecoglou needed that triple change just after the hour mark to hammer nails two, three, four and five into the visitors’ coffin. 

Hatate’s penalty, following Richard Taylor’s 75^th minute red card, was the beginning of a late blitz from the ruthless hosts; Oh scoring his first goal in green-and-white before O’Riley and Hatate (again) finished emphatically. 

Celtic hammer St Mirren in Scottish Cup last-16

“They bring three subs on and they score four goals,” Robinson sighs. “(These players are) worth a lot of money. And that ends up being the difference between the two sides. 

“I think anyone who watched the game for 75 minutes will have seen that there was nothing in the game,” adds the former Motherwell boss, via The Herald.

“That is an amazing thing to say with the talent they have on show. We came and pressed them and we created chances.

“The penalty changes the whole aspect of the game. It is hard enough with eleven! But, when you go down to ten men, it is virtually an impossible task at 2-0 down. They punished us for that but I have nothing but praise for the players.”  

Oh, the South Korea international brought in for around £2.6 million from Suwon Bluewings, showcased predatory instincts to tap home after Trevor Carson spilled a Callum McGregor effort into his path.

Following Giorgios Giakoumakis’ departure, Postecoglou will be hoping this is the first of many from a man who scored 13 times in the K-League across 2022.