The Celtic juggernaut rolls on leaving officials, hacks and rivals in the dust.

After the game at Perth, Rodgers had quite a lot to say for himself and quite a lot to say to our players.

He was about as angry as I think I’ve seen him in all the time he’s been Celtic boss, and he was fully entitled to be. He challenged the players to respond. The response, I think we can say this with complete confidence, has been outstanding. We’ve lashed two opponents in a row, we’ve booked the Hampden final, we’ve set up the treble, and we look as good as I’ve seen us this season.

There will be time later on to talk about individual performances. I want to single a couple of people out when I write about that later, but for the moment, let’s talk about the team. The team. The team was brilliant today, and it wasn’t just in the goals, and it wasn’t just in the attacking play. We did everything that Rodgers identified as being missing in that spell of games where we really did not look good.

I thought right from the start today, even when we were still trying to open them up, that our aggression was first-rate. Our pressing was exceptional. Over and over again in that early spell before we got the goal, they turned the ball over to us because we were in their faces. That is the kind of hard work, the kind of graft, the kind of attitude that put us miles clear of everyone else in the first place.

And in the past two games, it is that determination and will to win—not just games, but every single break of the ball—which was a clear difference and elevated the performance to that perfect level the manager wanted to see.

Frankly, he couldn’t have gotten more from these guys in these last two games. They gave everything. When we’re on that kind of form, when we’re playing that kind of football, when we’re that aggressive, there’s no team that can live with us. No team in this country, anyway.

I hope we take that into our last five league games and the cup final itself, because not only will we win this treble, but we’ll win it in style.

I love watching us at Hampden. It is—and has been for a while—our second home. Rodgers’ record there is better than just about any manager in our history. Never lost a game. Almost always gets there. One competition in all that time we exited before we got to the national stadium. This is why his record is so good—because he always puts us in that position. Always gets us to the place where we can add to the silverware. And once he actually does get us there, he has no equal.

There was never any danger of a Perth-style result happening today. Cup football is so far removed from league football that it’s one of the reasons why our record is so good. Clubs cannot sit behind the ball with 11 men; the moment they lose a goal, that’s over as a stratagem.

The nature of knockout football forces them to try and attack. The minute they do that and break their defensive shape, they’re easy pickings for a team with as many good players as we have. That’s why the patient build-up was so critical today.

The boss takes full credit. His players should also take a bow—all of them. There wasn’t a single bad performance out there.

But I do have a couple of bugbears I want to throw in. A couple of points that seemed obvious and very hard to ignore, even on a day we won so well.

St Johnstone’s disallowed goal was a beautiful strike. The lad should remember it till the day he dies, even though it didn’t count.

But he should never have gotten the opportunity to do that in the first place. The referee has to answer for why he didn’t immediately stop the game after the obvious foul on Adam Idah. I don’t care that Michael Stewart—who I thought had a dreadful game in the commentary box today—and others think that Idah should have been stronger. He was shoved in the back with two hands. It’s as clear a foul as you’ll ever see.

The referee was looking right at it and ignored it.

VAR’s intervention isn’t the scandal—what’s scandalous is that VAR had to intervene in the first place. That should have been dealt with in real time. So, VAR got it right, but the official has a case to answer for why he didn’t spot what was obvious to everyone.

And as bad as that single on-field moment was, at least it was overturned. The penalty decision, though, is absurd. In a week where everyone’s squealing like pigs about Dessers not getting one in the Europa League, to not award that today is almost an insult to the intelligence of our fans.

Forrest gets clipped outside the box, then again inside the box, and finally as he’s going down, an outstretched hand comes across and slaps him in the face.

To not give a penalty there is an act of incomprehensible incompetence from both the referee and the VAR official. Because the referee goes and has another look at it, and then changes his initial decision.

I cannot believe that.

I refuse to accept that decision—no matter how far in front we were, no matter that the game was out of sight. That decision is a disgrace. We should be banging on the SFA’s door, demanding answers for why it wasn’t given.

And last but not least—and this is a constant annoyance—they blew right on 90 minutes. After a lengthy VAR check for the penalty incident, another lengthy VAR check for St Johnstone’s goal, a full complement of Celtic substitutions, and a handful of changes for St Johnstone during open play.

As I’ve said before, this is standard among officials: to blow the whistle dead on full time if the game’s already won. But it is not the job of the officials to carry out a mercy killing. It is not their job to go easy on a side that’s being hammered into the ground like a tent peg. In fact, the word I’d use is cheating.

In my opinion, it’s an insult to fans not to add any additional time at the end of a game. More people should complain about it.

I thought there was an actual directive about this, telling officials they had to add time for incidents within the match. There should have been ample time added today—four or five minutes at the very least. That we see repeated instances of this doesn’t make it right. More clubs should speak out about it.

All that aside, that was as good an 80-something minutes as I’ve witnessed our team play in a while. The boss wanted a reaction, and he got it in every possible way. As I said, I’ll talk about individuals a bit later on, but suffice to say a lot of hacks who already look ridiculous look ever more stupid and irrelevant.

That display was just brilliant.

We are in the final. We deserve to be in the final. And once again, we are seeing the real Celtic strutting its stuff… and boy oh boy, it is beautiful.