Celtic 'deserve plaudits' after semi win, says Ralston

Anthony Ralston believes Celtic "deserve the plaudits" after overcoming St Mirren to reach the Scottish Cup final. Ralston scored Celtic's second in their 6-2 semi-final win, the tie settled by four goals by Martin O'Neill's side in extra time. St Mirren had rallied from two down to force the additional 30 minutes at Hampden.

Celtic's attention will now turn to the defence of their Scottish Premiership title, with their five post-split fixtures to come before they return to the national stadium to face Dunfermline Athletic in the cup final. "You can get caught up in the negativity of things and, you know, outside noise, but for us boys, we're a hard-working group, we're all very level headed in that sense," said Scotland right-back Ralston, 27, after scoring his first goal of the season. "And we take the criticism but we also deserve the plaudits as well, when we go and get a job done like we've done today.

"That should really kick us on now until the end of the season. " Ralston was set up by Yang Hyun-Jun and smacked a shot in off the crossbar shortly before half-time. "I don't get to do it often" he said.

"Yang laid it off and made my decision for me and I just decided to have a strike. "I'm delighted and I'm sure my family will have a great time watching it. "