Everything that Alistair Johnston said to the media after Celtic's 3-0 Scottish Premiership victory over Livingston

What was your assessment of that game?

It was a tough week, three matches with an away Champions League game thrown in when we went down to nine men. We had a similar team out there today and went down to 10 pretty early. To come out of that by scoring two and keeping a clean sheet is something we’re really happy with. I could just tell with the morale in the changing room afterwards. This isn’t an easy place to come and play. They make it difficult, the ball sticks up on the Astro. You saw that with the red card, the ball actually jumped backwards and caught Joe (Hart) out. But we came here knowing what we needed to do. To come here, go to 10 men and win 3-0. There are no complaints from us.

How pivotal a result could this be in the campaign?

It’s difficult to tell right now whether this will be a result we look back on as being really important. I think it’s one that everyone looked at and thought it was a big chance for Celtic to drop points. We dug in there and found a way. In the second half, we actually played some of our best football. That’s not easy to do when you’re a man down but we scored some great goals. People might not necessarily remember the performance but for us, it’s a good one to build on. I’m feeling it physically but mentally as well. It’s tiring when you’re constantly defending and shifting. At the same time, I and other guys love that feeling. It’s crazy looking at McGregor, O’Riley and Maeda flying around the pitch. It’s like: ‘Do you guys not know that’s your third 90 minutes in seven days’? They’re just guys who love to play football. You can see the joy they have no matter what the circumstances are. This is a group that loves to win. When you have that combination you can be a really dangerous team, which we are.

The manager told us that Joe apologised to the boys what did he say?

Joe is a top-class pro. I think we all know that anyway. I don’t think he had anything to apologise for. That astro just kicked the ball back. We discussed that as defenders. We let a ball drop over our heads. We’ve just got to be wary that it’s not necessarily going to skip forwards. It’s going to potentially check back. So we saw that as a backline and realised we actually gave their full-back too much time to put a ball behind us and put Joe in a position where something like that could happen. Joe’s a top pro and the first one to put his hands up. And everyone was like, ‘Shut up Joe!’ But he’s a great guy and he’ll take it on the chin and go from there.

What about Daizen Maeda's energy levels?

READ MORE: Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers praises Daizen Maeda's work rate

He’s a machine. That’s the simplest way to look at it. You look back at the Rangers match and he was just flying around the pitch for 90 minutes and it was the same in this match as well. He’s got an unbelievable engine. He’s a nightmare to play or train against. Just ask any of our full-backs who have to go up against him. He’s just constant and he’s like this every day. Which makes it really difficult for us although it’s good to train against a guy like that. You can never take a minute off. He really does count for two on that side as you think you bypass him with the ball and he’s doubling down, pressing the guy again. It’s amazing to watch from my side across the pitch as you know the guy doesn’t know what’s coming as all of a sudden Daizen is there again. He’s a joy to have in your team, he's such a weapon. He just helps us out in so many ways; on the attacking side we see the goal he scored in the 90th minute and then the defensive side as well. He’s really special to have.

He missed a sitter before Matt O'Riley actually scored didn't he?

We’ll take that though and I’m pretty sure Matty is happy with that and Daizen will take the assist.

What do you say to the people who thought you might slip up today?

We don’t listen to too much of what’s going on outside. Our heads were pretty screwed on the right way just because the manager was pushing right from the get-go, ‘Look we didn’t get the result we wanted in midweek but this is a great chance for us to go out there and play our football and get back to winning ways’. That’s something that we did. Three of the four stands being filled with Celtic fans going crazy definitely helps. We’ve got a group of really talented players and a really deep squad and we feel that whoever we put out there we have a good chance. When you have that mentality – even if you go down to 10 or nine – and score goals when you’re down a man it shows how talented this group is. We felt like it was another opportunity to show everyone what we’re all about and we did that today.