A 2-0 victory over St Mirren in Paisley has not only taken Celtic into the quarter-finals of the 2023/24 Scottish Cup, it has maintained the manager’s unbeaten record in the competition – 14 games played and 14 games unbeaten.

Past glories couldn’t have been further from his mind, though, as this visit to St Mirren Park took on the importance of being the ‘next game’ and Brendan Rodgers was delighted with the result and the opener that involved Callum McGregor and Luis Palma before Kyogo slotted away a sweet strike form the edge of the box.

He said after the game: “I’m very pleased because, this was always going to be a tough game, coming here with the form St Mirren have been in.

“We’ve played them a couple of times and the pitch was a bit bumpy, but I thought the guys managed the game really, really well.

‘They got the goals at good times, and in the second half they managed it very well.’

“I think Cal settles the game very well, it was a great pass and obviously we were away attacking the space.

“And we had a look at Kyogo attacking that little space in between the midfield and the backline, because they have players that drop in that sort of back five.

“Then there’s going to be that space in front and he exploited it very well and it was a great finish.”

Winning display against St Mirren get thumbs up from the manager