Alistair Johnston reveals Celtic 'f*** it' Motherwell mentality switch and why he ripped off face mask

Alistair Johnston has revealed a ‘f*** it’ mentality drove Celtic back from the brink of defeat at Fir Park.

The full-back took part in a heated half-time exchange with team-mates on Sunday after a dismal opening 45 minutes in Motherwell saw the champions trailing 1-0 at the break.

But a storming response carried them to a 3-1 win. And Johnston is demanding the same no-holds-barred approach when Dundee visit Parkhead on Wednesday night. He said: “We were a little too risk averse in the first half, playing a little too safe, a little too slow. That’s been a little bit of the tendency with how we’ve played of late. So it was important we all went – and we talked about this at half-time – with a little bit of an ‘eff it’ mentality. Play it forwards and what’s the worst that can happen?

“Lose it up there, we all run with bodies around and we’ll win it back. We got back to our basics of letting the system dictate the football for us.

“When we’re playing forwards everyone just finds the right spot on the pitch. It causes teams a lot of trouble. The running we do, whoever it is on the pitch, tires teams out.

“You could see it the more and more the minutes wore on. You could see it was coming but it was about whether there would be enough time to get one. Luckily enough the 93rd minute and the 97th we got another. The second half was about playing free and playing forwards.”

Johnston even ripped off a specially-designed protective face mask to lead the fightback. He said: “It just felt it needed to go. It almost felt symbolic. The first half wasn’t my best football.

“It just felt like, ‘Let’s get this thing off and see what happens’. It did turn around so I’m going to take part credit for that – the mask going and the bad juju