Korean sees run as Ki to Celts’ success

The South Korea international scored the opener in yesterday’s 2-1 win over Aberdeen at Parkhead which kept Neil Lennon’s men ten points behind the champions, and one behind Motherwell, with a game in hand over both.

Celtic started the match 13 points adrift following Rangers’ 2-0 win over Hearts at Tynecastle earlier in the day and after Ryan Jack had drawn Aberdeen level on the hour mark, Celtic Park was gripped by nerves until stand-in skipper Charlie Mulgrew scored the winner with a right-footed shot from close range.

Ki insists the Hoops players went on to the pitch unaware of the increased gap but came off it looking to string a run of victories together ahead of the visit of Rangers on December 28, starting with the Scottish Communities League Cup quarter-final clash against Hibs at Easter Road on Wednesday.

“No, we didn’t know that Rangers had gone 13 points clear,” he said. “It doesn’t matter, we don’t worry about the points, we want to concentrate on our games.

“We should have won more games but we have a lot of games left and we still believe that we can win the league. We have two games with Hibs coming up and we don’t want to lose the League Cup.

“The league is also very important because we want to keep chasing Rangers.

“So we should win until we play Rangers at Celtic Park in December, that is our target.”

After the game Lennon revealed defender Glenn Loovens came off in the first half with a hamstring injury which will be scanned today.

Dons boss Craig Brown was “aggrieved” with the decision of referee Stevie O’Reilly to send off Jack late in the second half.

The Aberdeen right-back picked up his first booking for leaving the pitch to celebrate his goal then with ten minutes remaining he was shown a second yellow card for a foul on Gary Hooper.