Ange Postecoglou in Celtic red card verdict as he reckons 'we had a covering player'

Ange Postecoglou reckons Celtic had a covering defender that could've spared captain Callum McGregor a red card in their win over Motherwell.

The reigning champions returned to the Premiership summit with a 2-1 win over Motherwell but their skipper is set for a spell on the sidelines after hauling down Ross Tierney in the dying minutes as he raced through on goal. But Postecoglou reckons his side were still well worth the win, having only been pegged back after Kyogo's opener by Josip Juranovic chesting the ball beyond Joe Hart and into his own net.

Victory restores the champions' two-point advantage over Rangers but the Parkhead boss suggested he feels McGregor's dismissal was not clear cut. He told BBC Sportsound: "It's hard to say. From my angle I thought we had a covering player. The referee's made that decision so we've just got to cop it."

Celtic weren't quite at their ruthless best and it allowed Motherwell to hold on until Reo Hatate smashed a swerving drive beyond Liam Kelly from distance. Postecoglou reckons his side created opportunities he would normally expect them to bury.

He said: "It (the win) is not significant but it's important. Especially when you've lost your previous game, you don't want to get into that rut where you make things difficult for yourself, so it was important to win.

"We certainly created enough chances to win the game more comfortably than we did. We had a couple of self-inflicted wounds, so probably made it closer than it should've been.

"(Were you happy with the performance?) To a certain part of the field. We hit the post twice so we were unlucky. But we could've been more ruthless and efficient in the final third - we had some chances we usually take which we didn't today.