Saturday 1 November 2014 20:36, UK
Celtic manager Ronny Deila hailed Lukasz Zaluska’s dedication after the Pole's late saves clinched a 1-0 Scottish Premiership victory over Inverness.
The Bhoys came under a barrage of late pressure at Parkhead as Caley Thistle tried to cancel out John Guidetti's 49th-minute strike.
Greg Tansey and Carl Tremarco both missed the target from good positions before Zaluska twice rescued his side in injury-time.
The Pole first smothered Billy McKay's close-range effort before stopping Tremarco's header and getting up ahead of everyone else to claw the loose ball over the crossbar.
Zaluska was in for Craig Gordon after the former Sunderland keeper felt some pain in his knee and was left out as a precaution.
The former Dundee United goalkeeper was making his first appearance since being hurt in an alleged assault last month but Deila is delighted with how Zaluska has recovered.
"I'm very happy for Lukasz because he has been working very hard in the last month now to get even fitter and you could see the improvement," he said. "He got us the three points in the end.
"When people really want to improve, and do the job you have to do, and you get these results, it gives me the energy to do my work.
"I think he's mentally strong. I haven't seen any problem. But he has been losing weight and looks really, really sharp. I saw it in training as well."
The narrow victory was also a controversial one as the Inverness players thought Scott Brown had pulled back Danny Williams to win possession and spark the counter-attack that led to Guidetti's goal.
Referee Craig Thomson was surrounded by blue shirts after the goal but Caley Thistle manager John Hughes was more concerned with the lack of organisation that led to his side being so exposed, after defending successfully in numbers in the first half.
"I felt a little hard done by, I felt it was a free-kick on Danny Williams, but really that's irrelevant because of what happened after that," he said.
"Celtic came right through the middle and scored a goal on the counter-attack. Somebody has to be shutting the back door.
"It was probably the first time in the game we lost our shape. It was not keeping our shape that annoyed me more. That was a wee bit of a lack of concentration. "
"I feel for the boys, we could have taken something out of the match but it just wasn't to be."
