Rangers favourite picks Celtic defender as best player on pitch | OneFootball

Former Rangers defender Andy Halliday has praised Celtic’s Alistair Johnston for his impressive display against Motherwell on Sunday. The Scottish Champions were 3-0 winners with Johnston scoring as he wore the captain’s armband.

Halliday told Clyde Superscoreboard on Monday that the player dealt with the pressure of standing in for Callum McGregor and Cameron Carter-Vickers as the versatile Motherwell player selected Johnston as the Performer of the Weekend.

“I think we had a lot of options this weekend, it must be said, I thought there were a lot of good performances over the weekend,”

“I have a feeling the Celtic v Motherwell game will be a big talking point, as always, so I am going to go for Alistair Johnston.

“The fact that he was wearing the captain’s armband going into the game was always that added bit of pressure there. But I thought he was Celtic’s best player on the pitch.

“A lot has been said about what he offers the team defensively. He has always been a brilliant one-v-one defender.

“I think, over the last six months or so, we are seeing a real big input in his attacking outlet and I think he was great.”

Johnston scored a wonderful backpost header as he found himself in an attacking position. The Canadian Internationalist then relinquished the armband as Carter-Vickers was subbed on to face Alex Valle.

Josip Juranovic was a brilliant player and there had been concerns that Celtic would struggle to replace the Croatian. However, Johnston has gone from strength to strength after joining the club.

Meanwhile Halliday will be preparing alongside his Motherwell teammates for this Sunday’s League Cup Semi Final against Rangers. Kettlewell’s side kick off the day after Celtic face Aberdeen for a place in the showpiece Final.