Brendan Rodgers praises board for tying down Celtic's best players

Anthony Ralston, Reo Hatate and Matt O’Riley have all extended their contracts in the past seven days and the Denmark Under-21 midfielder marked his news with a late, late winner against Motherwell to take his tally for the season to five.

The likes of Stephen Welsh, Callum McGregor, Daizen Maeda and Kyogo Furuhashi signed extended terms in the summer and Rodgers believes the stability has been important.

“I think it’s immense credit to the board over the last few months when you look at the number of players we’ve tied down to longer deals here, that takes a lot of work and a lot of negotiation, and for them to be convinced that this is the place for them to develop,” he said.

“But with Matty, I’m so, so happy for him. He gets out of the game what he puts into it, he’s so professional, he has big quality, and like I said when I came in, we just needed to get more goals into his game.

“In fairness to him, his timing and his finishing is quality. It was a big goal.

“He will only get better, he’s only 22. So, it’s what you need to do, you need to have that balance.

“I’ve always had at least a single number eight that can score a lot of goals breaking forward, and he’s doing that really, really well.”

One of Rodgers’ recent signings got off the mark slightly earlier in the game as Luis Palma came off the bench to whip in an 87th-minute opener.

Rodgers said: “It was a great cross! No, it’s great for him, he’s adapting like the other new players. This is a level of intensity that they’re not used to.

“Marco Tilio came in from Australia where the weather is beautiful, Palma coming in from Greece… now it’s raining and it’s tough and they’ve got to adapt.

“But for him, that will be massive for him. It’s a great cross in, he can do that, he plays it in and we were happy when it found the corner.”

Motherwell levelled five minutes into stoppage-time after Blair Spittal played a one-two and finished into the bottom corner, only for O’Riley to net after the restart.

It was a third consecutive defeat for Stuart Kettlewell’s side, all coming against the top three in the cinch Premiership, all by one goal, and each one of them providing chances for a better outcome.

“Our players are performing to their absolute maximum at the moment, we would just like to turn that into points,” the Motherwell manager said.

“We now look forward to Livingston away next weekend and the chance to put some points on the board, as difficult as that will be.

“We want to approach the international break with a more positive feeling than we do now.”