Brave Ross County beaten by Celtic as Furuhashi and Jota strikes seal points for Scottish Premiership leaders
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
Ross County 0
Celtic 2 (Furuhashi, Jota)
A valiant second half performance from Ross County was not enough to topple Premiership leaders Celtic, who ran out 2–0 in Dingwall.
Kyogo Furuhashi marked his return to Celtic's starting line-up with a first half goal, but the Staggies upped their standards after half time and put their visitors under some pressure.
One goal was all that separated the sides until the very end, with it taking an 88th minute Jota finish to wrap up the points in favour of the Glasgow giants.
Staggies boss Malky Mackay was forced into one change, with Jack Baldwin dropping out of the squad entirely and being replaced in the starting line-up by club captain Keith Watson.
For the visitors, Ange Postecoglou made three changes, with Josip Juranovic not in the squad and Liel Abada and Tom Rogic dropping to the bench. They were replaced in the starting 11 by Anthony Ralston – who scored the 97th minute winner last time Celtic visited Dingwall – Matt O'Riley and Kyogo Furuhashi.
The Premiership leaders started more brightly, forcing a couple of corner inside the opening minutes with a good spell of early pressure.
Ross Laidlaw did not have too much to do, though, until he was forced to pick the ball out of his own net.
Celtic moved forward swiftly, working the ball out to the right where Jota sent an accurate cross into the middle – and Kyogo Furuhashi was on hand to head past the County keeper to open the scoring.
They continued to make life hard for their hosts, with County struggling to get their foot on the ball and retain possession for any sort of extended period.
Coupled with Celtic's speed of transition from defence to attack, that made for some worrying moments for the home side.
Furuhashi had the ball in the back of the net only to see the offside flag deny him a second, before the woodwork did the same as he acrobatically tried to steer another Jota cross back across Laidlaw and into the corner.
Laidlaw very nearly cost County a goal shortly before half time though, spilling Matt O'Riley's long-range effort right into the path of Furuhashi, but the stopper was able to recover quickly enough to make an important save.
County's keeper was called into action again before the interval, preventing Daizen Maeda adding to Celtic's tally.
The start of the second half looked like following the same pattern as the first with Celtic on the front foot, but County were at last able to cause a bit of panic in the visiting backline.
Regan Charles-Cook danced past his marker on the left win to bring the ball into the box, but his lay-off went through to Harry Paton who took too long to strike the ball towards goal as his effort was charged down.
Paton would have another chance minutes later that he skied over the bar, with Alex Iacovitti also finding a yard of space to shoot – although the defender did not connect properly with his effort – and Jordan White sending a shot wide of the mark.
Celtic, though, continued to pose a threat – albeit not one that troubled Laidlaw too often in the early stages of the second half.
Substitutions freshened up their options though, and one of those men who came on, Liel Abada, was presented with a good chance to double the visitors' lead when Greg Taylor's low cross fell to him, only for the attacker to miss the target.
Another of those players brought on by Celtic was David Turnbull, who twice took aim at goal only to miss the target.
The third, Georgios Giakoumakis, played a pivotal role just before the clock ticked over on to 90 minutes, helping his side go 2–0 up.
Giakoumakis saw his initial shot evade Laidlaw's reach, but it bounced back off the bar – leaving Jota with a simple tap in to seal the points for Celtic.
Ross County: Laidlaw, Randall, Vokins, H Paton (Hungbo 69), Spittal, Callachan, Watson, Iacovitti, Charles-Cook (D Samuel 88), Tillson (Cancola 69), White.
Subs not used: Munro, Sims, Burroughs, Ramsay, Drysdale, B Paton.
Celtic: Hart, Taylor, Starfelt, Furuhashi (Abada 64), Jota (Forrest 89), Carter-Vickers, O'Riley (Giakoumakis 64), Maeda (Rogic 64), Hatate (Turnbull 73), McGregor, Ralston.
Subs not used: Bain, Scales, McCarthy, Welsh.
Referee: Kevin Clancy
Attendance: 6619
Yellow cards: Ross County – Callachan (5), White (42); Celtic – .
