Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers hailed Daizen Maeda’s attitude after the Japan international headed a stoppage-time winner against Motherwell.
Maeda’s diving header sealed a 3-2 victory as Celtic came from behind to move two points behind William Hill Premiership leaders Hearts.
The forward had his heart set on a summer move but Celtic’s failure to secure attackers in the transfer window meant he had to stay.
Rodgers has since moved the 27-year-old to an unfamiliar right-wing role for the same reason and he ended up on the left and then through the centre before getting the winner in a thrilling contest.
“He just deserves so much credit,” Rodgers said. “This is a guy that I’d seen before I came in here, then for over two years now, he’s given his heart and soul to this club.
“Everything that happened in the summer is well documented and that’s not easy. If it affects a player like him, then you know how deep it goes.
“He’s playing in probably the third (favourite) position if you asked him, because we have a gap on that side. He’s just got on with it.
“You see the difference the minute he comes over. His pressing, the intensity, everything changes for him. I just felt he’s the type that can nick you a goal. He gets in with a nice little move and he gets the goal.
“I’m so, so happy for him and his family because he’s given so much to this club and he will continue to do that.”
Celtic opened the scoring through Kelechi Iheanacho’s penalty but Apostolos Stamatelopoulos turned the game around with a diving header and spot-kick.
Motherwell goalkeeper Calum Ward made some good saves but gifted Benjamin Nygren an equaliser with a loose pass as the visitors committed to Jens Berthel Askou’s philosophy of playing from the back.
Rodgers said: “It was a fantastic win for us. You can see why Motherwell hadn’t lost a game. How they build the game up and the confidence they play with – the coach deserves a huge amount of credit because we had to be really on it and organised in our pressing.
“We got a goal from that, but there were other moments where they came through the pitch and they deserve a lot of credit for what they gave to the game.
“I thought our players deserved it. It’s not easy to play here when you go behind. But we kept fighting. The subs coming into the game made a great impact for us.
“In that final 15 minutes where we had them pinned back and moving the ball at speed and creating opportunities, it was great to see.”
Askou suffered his first defeat as Motherwell manager but said: “I’m extremely proud of how we invested in this football game, to not just show up and get a scrappy draw, but to actually go and win it.”
And he had no regrets over the nature of Celtic’s equaliser.
“It is how we see ourselves becoming successful,” he said. “One thing is getting as high up in the league as possible and the other thing is to develop our players to the next level and make them interesting for bigger clubs so we can make good business as well.
“Sometimes there’s a little mistake that the best teams obviously are able to punish, which I think everyone is frustrated about right now, but in the big picture there’s a lot more positives than negatives to take away from how we play.”
