ANGE Postecoglou last night revealed he had put Georgios Giakoumakis on penalty duty – and backed the Greek striker to bounce back from missing a spot kick that would have sent Celtic to the top of the cinch Premiership.

Giakmoumakis had a chance to clinch a narrow win for the Parkhead club in their league meeting with Livingston at home yesterday when Ayo Obileye lashed out at Kyogo Furuhashi inside his own area in injury-time.

Left back Josip Juranovic netted from 12 yards against Real Betis last month and St Johnstone earlier this month – but his team mate stepped forward and struck a poor effort which Max Stryjek saved easily.

Postecoglou - whose side were held to a 0-0 draw and failed to leapfrog Rangers, who take on Motherwell at Fir Park today, into first place – admitted that he had replaced Juranovic with his countryman.

But he insisted the 26-year-old, a £2.5m signing from Dutch club VVV Venlo in August, would be unaffected and predicted he will take responsibility if the Glasgow club are awarded a penalty in their Europa League match against Fernecvaros in Hungary on Thursday night. 

“He'll be disappointed, but that's the role of a striker,” he said. “They get the limelight when they score goals and when they don't, they have to dust themselves off and go again. I'm sure he'll do that and he understands it. He'll be fine.

“He was always taking the penalty. It was my decision, he was the designated penalty taker. He wasn't on the pitch last week when Juranovic took it and it was my call today.

“He's had this feeling before. The good strikers dust themselves off knowing that when the next chance comes they'll put it away. I'm sure that's what he'll do. That's what I'll be telling him to do.

“It's not about feeling sorry for yourself. That's his role in the team, he's got to be there and take opportunities when they come. He didn't today, but if he gets himself in the right areas on Thursday I'm sure he'll take them then.”

Postecoglou praised his players’ efforts during the 90 minutes and confessed their failure to capitalise on the chances they created in the final third against opponents who defended in numbers had cost them victory.

“It was a frustrating afternoon for us,” he said. “We knew the challenge was going to be finding a way through Livingston. We knew getting a goal would make a big difference and we got our chances, but unfortunately couldn't take them.

“It's exactly right to say we had to take the chances at the end. We had good opportunities to win the game, but didn't take them.

“But in the context of the game, we still maintained discipline and worked hard. We didn't get too frustrated while we were out there. The boys were excellent for the most part.”

Postecoglou added: “I thought we got the spark. People will look at the end result and say we didn't do enough. But we'd be talking about a different game if we'd taken the chances we had.

“You're not going to get better chances than that at the end in a game of football. The game's about scoring goals, but it was elusive for us today.”