ANGE Postecoglou has expressed his disappointment that Celtic’s huge cinch Premiership victory over Rangers at Ibrox this afternoon was marred by “idiots”.

A member of the Parkhead club’s backroom staff required stitches after being struck by a missile as the visitors made their way off the field at half-time.

And the start of the second-half was delayed for several minutes because pieces of a broken bottle had been thrown into the Celtic penalty area.

Postecoglou’s men, who fell behind in the third minute to an Aaron Ramsey goal, won the match 2-1 thanks to first-half Tom Rogic and Cameron Carter-Vickers strikes.

The triumph sent the Glasgow giants six points clear of their city rivals at the top of the Premiership table with just six games remaining.

However, their Greek-Australian coach was upset that the spectacle had been tarnished by two off-field incidents.   

“It is disappointing,” he said. “I thought it was a proper derby, the atmosphere was unbelievable, both teams were up for it, both teams were going for it.

“You don’t need it. I don’t know what people are trying to achieve by doing that. I thought it was a fantastic spectacle.

“Sitting here now as the winning coach that kind of taints my view of it, but I thought anybody watching that would agree it was a good game of football and you could tell there was something meaningful at the end of it by the way both sets of players went at it.

“Like I said their crowd was up for it, our 700 was up for it and couldn’t stop signing. That is what you want.”

Asked to confirm reports that a Celtic employee had been struck, Postecoglou said: “Yeah, he was, on the way in. I think he is okay, He had a couple of stitches.

“It is disappointing because this is a game that gets beamed around the world and it stands on its own. You had two teams going at it in first and second spot and you don’t need a couple of idiots spoiling it.”

Asked what the significance of the win was for Celtic in the Scottish title race, Postecoglou said: “Three points closer mate.

“We’ve just got to keep doing what we’ve been doing. We’re in this position for a reason and the main reason is that the value of this group of players, the resilience they have.

“After six games we’d lost three and we were still putting a team together. But at no stage did I make excuses or any allowances for them. They accepted the challenge ahead of them.

“We’ve got to this point because of what you saw today. Our football’s been great. But there’s a real abundance of character within the group.”