Anthony Ralston in Celtic 'champions for a reason' reminder after Rangers as he demands return to Parkhead standards

The defender is targeting an instant reaction to the disappointing 3-0 defeat at Ibrox.

Anthony Ralston insists honest Celtic won’t hide away from their Ibrox flop. And the Parkhead defender is adamant the painful defeat will only drive an instant push for immediate restoration of high standards within Ange Postecoglou’s Treble-chasing unit.

Celtic lost their 34-match unbeaten domestic record with the 3-0 loss. Although the title was already in the bag before the game in Govan, Ralston has made it crystal clear his team won’t just set the beating aside. Captain Callum McGregor said the performance was unacceptable and right-back Ralston said: “Exactly. And we do know that.

“We have our standards and we are not going to hide away from that. It’s not in our nature. We have not got to the position we have got to now by hiding away from things and by accepting things. By just sitting it aside. We face value absolutely everything that we have done from day one and we’ll continue to do that.”

The defeat to Rangers had no consequences in terms of the Premiership with the trophy in the Celtic cabinet, but Ralston’s disappointment was evident. When it was put to him post-match that his demeanour dismissed a notion of any Old Firm encounter being rendered meaningless and showed that the reverse hurt, he said: “Yeah, definitely.

“But even that aside, it’s the point I’ve made at the beginning, no matter what game it is, we have our own standards. We look to live up to that in every single game.”

Celtic still have the ultimate achievement within their grasp as a Scottish Cup Final win over Inverness next month will seal a domestic trophy clean sweep. But Ralston continued: “We can’t forget that. We can’t forget that we are champions for a reason.

“We have been outstanding this season and we are all really happy about the season that we have had as a collective as a squad. We have the Scottish Cup Final to look ahead to and there are a lot of positives still to take, but that doesn’t mean anything is accepted.

“Nothing is accepted but the high standards that we have created, that we have set and we will be looking to maintain that moving forward.”

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