Celtic received a massive boost on Sunday with Alistair Johnston returning to the starting XI at Easter Road after six months on the sidelines after a hamstring injury scuppered much of his season…
With the World Cup Finals just around the corner the Canada international will now be looking to get as much game-time in as possible at Celtic before heading over the Atlantic as the Greatest Show on Earth comes to his home soil.
And as always he’ll want to board that flight home with yet another two winners medals in his possession with the Scottish Premiership and Scottish Cup double very much a realistic target for the Canadian.
Trophy Day Showdown with Hearts
Johnston gave an insight into the mentality from within the Celtic squad as they understand what they have to do to lift the Scottish Premiership trophy a week on Saturday when the trophy will be at Celtic Park ready to be handed over to one of the teams in that final day of the league season.
Hearts currently have a three points advantage over the current Champions and also a five goal difference advantage on the Hoops. But they have to come to Celtic Park and that’s possibly going to be the ultimate title decider.
Tough contests for both title hopefuls ahead of possible decider
Of course each side has two remaining matches before then. Celtic have the Glasgow Derby at Celtic Park on Sunday then a midweek trip to Fir Park to take on Motherwell next Wednesday night. There are two tough matches that Celtic must win.
Meanwhile Hearts play first on Saturday evening and they too are away to Motherwell, before they play Falkirk at Tynecastle in midweek.
Johnston will appreciate the tough task that awaits Celtic but will also understand that the pressure not to slip up will be on Hearts who will want to come to Celtic Park with as much of an advantage as possible. Indeed if results go their way through any Celtic slip-ups they could even make the journey across the M8 as already Champions.
Celtic can only focus on their on remit and that means beating the Rangers on Sunday – preferably by a few goals and then collecting the three points against Jens Berthel Askou’s fine Motherwell side.
“We know how good our squad is,” the Celtic defender stated, as reported by TCW. “Even with a couple injuries, we still fancy ourselves to be the favourites to go and win the league.
“So there’s been that added pressure from within our own group. Like, no, we can find a way. We need to go and find a way to win this league.
“But there’s been tonnes, just tonnes of things that have happened. Tonnes of change behind the scenes. Tonnes of obstacles. But the lads have passed them. Not always with flying colours, but they’ve passed them,” Alistair Johnston said.
The Celtic star continued: “We’ve continued to chip away and stay in this league. And now we have a chance here to go up there and ideally do a double. So that’s kind of still our mindset.
“There’s definitely an excitement in the group because you know that it’s all still there to play for. And that’s all you can really ask for when you get to this time of the season.”
The Celtic support will be giving the team absolutely everything and in return that’s exactly what we expect from the players. There will be no worries that Alistair Johnston will come up short. Therein lies the massive boost for Martin O’Neill.
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