Brendan Rodgers reveals 'Celtic boy' joke with Ronan Hale as old traditions die hard in Dingwall

Brendan Rodgers copped flak for not changing the Celtic way in Dortmund the other night.

The Hoops boss shrugged it all off and he reckons there IS more than one way for his team to play. And they showed it in the Highlands. The Celtic Way is not just all about swashbuckling football – it’s about going right to the final whistle as late winners are every bit as much the fabric of his club as the silky stuff.

There wasn’t too much of the latter for long spells in Dingwall. This season has been a stroll for his side but this time it was a slog. County dug deep and in numbers and they made a weary Celtic outfit look pedestrian for the first time on the home front this term. Yet the Hoops found a way to reward the 2500 fans packed in the away end for an early kick-off a few days after dragging themselves back from Dortmund.

Rodgers said: “You have to. It's a Celtic tradition, isn't it? It's how the game is played at this club. Because if you look over the course of this week, we had thousands of fans turn up in Dortmund.

“They've seen what they've seen, which wasn't great, but they give us great support at the end of the game. Now they're having to come up here for a 12 o'clock kick-off, so the very least you can do is run your heart out right to the very end. That's what this club's about. It's the fabric of this club. You keep going to the end.”

Celtic could have written this one off as one of those days. They might be few and far between under Rodgers but they do happen. Back in 2016, the Irishman’s side spilled points in a 2-2 draw with Inverness over the Kessock Bridge just a few days after being battered for seven by Barcelona to end their unbeaten start to the season. It looked like it was heading the same way in