Greg Taylor has echoed his manager’s words from last weekend about this football club coming to life at this time in the campaign. The left-back has enjoyed many past successes at Celtic Park just like his manager, but has also known the lows that come with missing out on that precious silverware that our rivals just can’t seem to get their hands on at our behest this past few years.
The lion share of domestic trophies
Barring the odd cup and a tainted League title back in 2020/21, the Hoops have pretty much controlled the lion share of domestic trophies for the past decade or so.
It’s a feat that is quite remarkable, when you consider we have won countless domestic clean sweeps along the way – a notoriously difficult thing to accomplish. But our club has managed to pull of this magnificent achievement time after time and it seems like we just have muscle memory when it comes to the sharp end of the footballing season.
It’s always nice to get back to Hampden
Taylor insists that that desire and hunger for success never abates and that this weekend at Hampden Park it will be no different when we face the Dons in our Scottish Cup Semi-final. Speaking ahead of the game at today’s media conference, he said:
“I’m excited, it’s always nice to get back to Hampden but it will be a difficult game tomorrow. It’s the business end of the season, and we always want to finish strongly. It’s been a big part of the success we’ve had in previous seasons, but we understand this is a new season and there’s ‘x’ amount of games to do that.”
Despite several ups and downs this year, the Scotland international reckons we have now turned a corner and are hitting that top gear at the correct time.
Preparation has been fully on Aberdeen
He continued: “Every competition we enter, we try and win, and this Scottish Cup is no different. We want to be on top, but we also know that there are five league games left and when the league comes back around, we’ll be focused on that. But for now and this week, the preparation has been fully on Aberdeen and the semi-final of the Scottish Cup.
“It’s important that we have real strong foundations, a real strong philosophy on how we want to play our football. That’s not changed throughout the whole season. There have been strong parts of the season, there’s been low parts of the season, but I think we’re peaking at a good time.”
The Celtic left-back added: “We’ve got a lot of bodies back and we’re hopefully trying to reach our top level of football in these last few games.
How we want to play
“It’s a big part of it, of course pressure is in these big games, but for us we work throughout the week on how we want to play and I think that’s a big part of it because when it comes to the games at the weekend, you know what rhythms you’re trying to get into, what type of patterns or how we want to play.
“So the coaching staff and the manager can take big credit in that. We know everything and know our roles when we go to the pressurised situations.”
It certainly makes you excited for more
The former Kilmarnock man has had the privilege of winning the Scottish Cup already and revealed that the feeling of sheer euphoria that accompanies winning that cup makes the heart eager to do it all over again.
He said: I don’t know if it helps, it certainly makes you excited for more. There’s no better feeling than winning trophies at this club, and the success is what you work all season for, it’s what you work in pre-season for. It’s everything, so this is no different now and Saturday is a big one.”
