Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers has his sights set on history after his side moved another step closer to a sixth treble in nine years.
A 5-0 Hampden win over St Johnstone set up a Scottish Gas Scottish Cup final against Aberdeen on May 24.
Rodgers and Jock Stein have both completed two trebles, while Martin O’Neill, Neil Lennon and Ange Postecoglou have one each, and Celtic won three trophies in the season that Lennon replaced his compatriot in the job.
When asked if the chance to move on to three himself motivated him, Rodgers said: “Clearly, yeah, it does – 3.1 it will be as well.
“It’s nice when it comes to us as an individual. But for me, it’s what’s best for Celtic and us winning the trophies.
“Because it’s not so much the trophies for me on a personal level. It’s the hard work that goes into it, the values that are there and the idea of how we work and how we play and how we coach the players every day. So that’s what’s more important to me.
“But, of course, for the club and the history and the supporters, getting the trophy is key.
“So we’ve got two more to win and we’ll recover and get ready to finish off the league.”
St Johnstone restricted a dominant Celtic to largely long-range efforts before Alistair Johnston won the ball inside the Saints half and fed Reo Hatate, who set up Callum McGregor to net in the 34th minute.
Daizen Maeda had netted a double and Adam Idah was also on target by half-time and substitute Jota rounded off the scoring as Celtic avenged their recent league defeat in Perth.
“My thoughts going into this game was this was important to get the work in,” Rodgers said.
“It’s having that humility to run, to work and then after you do that, it’s then about the ambition of the game. And that’s what we showed.
“That’s a huge testament to the players because we needed to respond from the St Johnstone game two weeks ago which wasn’t acceptable for our club.
“The players have since won two games by half-time but still showed the ambition to keep going.”
St Johnstone manager Simo Valakari bemoaned some poor decision-making on the ball after his side deprived Celtic of space in behind for the opening half-hour.
“We did 30 minutes of things that we were practising,” he added. “Then we think, ‘Okay, let’s try something different’. And then, boom, everything goes out of our hands.
“We need to learn that, but we just need to be humble, patient enough, just do the things that are working.
“At half-time, the cup dream was gone. The only thing to play for was pride. The pride to play for this beautiful club, to play for our fans. I think our players went there, they showed character.”
Valakari took away a positive in getting Uche Ikpeazu a 15-minute debut off the bench after the striker’s season was beset by three knee operations
“It was good to see him back,” the Finn said. “Especially for himself, but of course for the team as well, we see what kind of player he is.
“Of course, we need to understand, one year without the football, two weeks’ team training, you know where you are.
“But now, he’s healthy. Let’s get more and more training inside him. I believe he can help us a lot.”
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