Ange Postecoglou reckons his Celtic side are primed and ready to sprint across the finish line to claim the Scottish Premiership title.

The Parkhead club holds a 12-point lead over nearest rivals Rangers with just 18 points left to play for in the league.

While the title race appears to have reached a forgone conclusion, Postecoglou is thrilled his players are continuing to put out impressive performances and not allow standards to be dropped.

"First half, the boys were outstanding," said the Celtic boss after the win over Kilmarnock. "It was some of the best football we’ve played all year with the way we moved the ball and ourselves around the pitch.

"After last week’s big win you’re looking at where the focus is. But it was important we started with a good intent. Second half we got a bit sloppy and disjointed and could have defended a bit more.

"It shows there’s a real good understanding within the group of the kind of team we want to be.

"You can talk in cliches about taking every game as they come but they handled it in a responsible manner.

"The guys coming in helped. We brought players into a team doing well. They have got motivation, they want to perform well and it gives everyone a lift."

Postecoglou's side have already bypassed last season's wins tally with 30 victories this league season and will overtake their previous winning points total with one more win in their remaining six.

"I think so, and it is important, because in a perfect world, you design your team to play its best football at the most important part [of the season]," said Postecoglou when asked on his side's desire not to coast to the title.

"That's not discounting the fact that you've got to be in this position to start with, so we've had to be pretty strong all year, but this is the time of year when things get decided and you want to be playing your best football then.

"I thought the attitude was first-rate, it's not an easy pitch to play on.

"It’s a difficult opponent desperate for points. You can come here and try to get three points and move on but we came with an intent to play our football."

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Postecoglou reserved special praise for Yuki Kobayashi after he stepped in for the missing Cameron Carter-Vickers at Rugby Park.

"I thought he was really good," he said of the former Vissel Kobe central defender. "It wasn’t easy to play on the surface and they were physical. It’s been a different kind of period for us with a game a week.

"I’ve got a squad that can take two games a week. We’ve got to fill those gaps working hard at training. The boys have done that.

"Training is really competitive. They’re coming in ready to go even though we’ve not had the games to do it.

"It was good to get him 90 minutes but in all the games he’s played he’s hardly put a foot wrong and he’s growing as a player."

Quizzed on whether Kobayashi has had the toughest job to get into the Celtic team, Postecoglou added: "That’s always going to be the challenge. If it’s not Cameron or Carl it’ll be someone else.

"All good clubs won’t just have two good centre halves.

"We want more in each position challenging but since he’s come in he’s been focused and we’ve done a lot of work with him so he was ready for his opportunity."