Celtic’s Jota was in ‘flow zone’ when catching assistant referee with his arm

Celtic winger Jota admitted he was in the “flow zone” when he caught the assistant referee with his arm after scoring against St Mirren.

The Portuguese player was waving his team-mates back to their own half after netting a 56th-minute equaliser against the 10-man Buddies and made contact with assistant Ross Macleod.

The urgency proved effective as Celtic were ahead within five minutes and continued to push forward in a 5-1 victory.

Jota said: “The assistant didn’t say anything to me but I was just pushing everyone to go as fast as possible.

“I maybe got over excited because we wanted to do the remontada (comeback), as they say in Spain.

“I just wanted to go as fast as I could and when that happens you are in the flow zone.

“It doesn’t matter who is there, it could be the other coach, but I just want to go as fast as I can.”

Celtic had not scored on their previous two visits to Paisley and the home side had genuine hopes of repeating their September victory over the cinch Premiership leaders when Mark O’Hara netted an early penalty.

A 38th-minute red card for Charles Dunne changed the game but Jota always had confidence Celtic would turn the game on its head.

“Why would you think it wasn’t going to be our day? I think it depends on your approach,” he said.

“Of course the red card changed things in the match but our approach remained the same.

“It was the same from the beginning. We knew how difficult the match was going to be and we knew exactly what to do.

“There are different times of the game and different things happening, but we had to adapt.

“I think we did that pretty well. In the second half we knew the game would be more open and we just had to take our chances.

“We tried to play our game, even before the red card. It was a bit unlucky we didn’t manage to score.

“But after that moment the game opened up a bit and we just had to take our chances and that’s what we managed to do. In the end we did it really well.

“Everyone knows exactly what is required on the pitch and the spaces and opportunities will be there as long as we make the runs.

“If we keep doing our stuff, we will create chances. That’s happening in every game and then it’s up to us to score.”