With Anthony Ralston ruled out through injury, Josip Juranovic still to return after World Cup duty and Alistair Johnston unavailable until January, Ange Postecoglou called on Reo Hatate to slot into the right-back role for the Christmas Eve clash against St Johstone.

And the Japanese midfielder produced a Man of the Match performance in the 4-1 home win, scoring two of the goals and looking assured in what was an unfamiliar position for him.

With the Hoops back in action on Wednesday night against Hibernian at Easter Road, the Celtic manager will assess the fitness of Ralston before making a decision on team selection, but Hatate may well find himself in that right-back role again if required.

Speaking ahead of the midweek match, Ange Postecoglou said: “Reo was great. I thought, with the way it was set up with these kind of things, you can kind of disrupt the whole team or the easiest thing for us was to put a player there who maybe wasn’t familiar with the position.

'Now, Reo’s played left-back earlier in his career, which I knew from Japan, although he’s not a full-back, that’s for sure.'

"But I thought whatever frailties we may have had defensively, he would give us plenty going the other way and make us even more dangerous.

“And credit to him, I thought even defensively he did a really good job. He kept his discipline and kept his position, and as soon as I told him the day before the match, he was fine, he was all-in.

And apart from the goals, I thought it was a really good performance from him.”

Manager's praise for right-back Reo after Man of the Match performance