Impenetrable Celtic WON'T fold to Rangers as Parkhead star roars 'there are no cracks' in Rodgers machine

Brendan Rodgers reckons there are numerous naysayers determined to chip away at his Celtic side. But Stephen Welsh insists there is no way this Hoops squad will crack.

Celts marched into the last eight of the Scottish Cup at the weekend with their gutsy win at St Mirren. And it quietly took their recent run to eight wins and a draw in their last nine games.

Chuck in six clean sheets and Rodgers and his players are wondering what some of the fuss has been about of late. The Hoops boss has adopted a siege mentality, speaking about external forces “ganging up” to drag him and his side down. Rodgers pointed to his long injury list and the fact his patchwork team is still getting the job done. Critics have poked holes in recent displays but a lot of the pressure has come from fans frustrated at the lack of progress in the transfer market as an eight-point lead in the league has all but gone up in smoke.

Those are the big issues. Welsh is one of the men doing the business on the pitch and he was superb dealing with Saints’ aerial bombardment. And the defender was equally determined to bat away any other kinds of attacks. Welsh said: “There are no cracks. We are confident in what we do. The gaffer is confident in what we do and we stick together, not just the back four, the midfield three and front three and whoever comes on the pitch. We are together, a united team, so we will move forward.

“We always have the fire in the belly. Every team comes to beat us and our job is to stop them, play our own game and we’ve done that in the last couple of games. There is always a determination in this group. Not only the quality but the character that we have.

“We’ve a lot of experienced players who have won trophies. We won a Treble last