Brendan Rodgers praises team for holding nerve against Motherwell

The manager said he was "proud of the team'' for staying calm after their Fir Park hosts went one up with 12 minutes remaining thanks to an own goal.

But a controversial decision awarded Hoops a penalty in the 88th minute put away by Scott Sinclair.

The Ladbrokes Premiership leaders had beaten Motherwell 2-0 in the Betfred Cup final at Hampden Park on Sunday thanks to contentious spot kick awarded when Sinclair he went down easily under a challenge from Cedric Kipre, who was then sent off.

Rodgers said: "They have been angry with a lot since Sunday, they seem to be angry with everything.

"Again, their keeper made a great save, we should have finished it, the ball rebounds out, the player makes an attempt to get the ball, Callum (McGregor) steps in front, gets his body there and he knocks him over.

"And if you look at the referees decision, he is in the perfect position to give it so yes, I thought it was a penalty.

"Of course when you are the opposition, you probably think it's not.

"The team showed their spirit, we know we can score and we should have been more clinical.

"I am really proud of the team tonight.''

On Wednesday Moussa Dembele slammed in the second with the penalty which had the Well manager raging but it looked like the Steelmen would get a measure of revenge when, with 12 minutes remaining, Hoops right-back Mikael Lustig knocked the ball into his own net as he tried to clear a Craig Tanner free-kick.

However, with two minutes remaining, referee Willie Collum pointed to the spot after McGregor went down in the penalty area under a challenge from Andy Rose.

Substitute Sinclair, jeered when he came on in the second-half, scored to extend Celtic's unbeaten domestic run to 66 games and leave the home supporters fuming.

However, this time, pointedly, Robinson said: I am not going to talk about the decision.

"I am going to talk about the game, two good teams, both trying to win the game. Celtic had a lot of chances so did we.

"Trevor Carson was outstanding, let's talk about Allan Campbell's performance, Chris Cadden, Kieran Tierney, Scott Brown, there was some quality performances out there.

"Let's not talk about the refs. I can't control them, I can't change it.

"I am not going to make any comment on it at all.''

Rodgers said: "Their keeper made some brilliant saves and we should have been a couple of goals to the good.

"We don't take our chances and all of a sudden we go behind.

"But the response from the team after that was absolutely brilliant.

"We stayed calm, made some changes and eventually we got ourselves back into it. The team really showed their spirit''

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