Liam Scales and Alistair Johnston had to settle for a share of the spoils in Ireland and Canada’s friendly warm-up match, before the World Cup starts this week…
Both men ended the season as Scottish Premiership and Scottish Cup winners, following an incredibly fraught campaign that saw the manager change three times, with two interim spells with fellow Hearts-breaker and the Rangers conqueror, Martin O’Neill.
Liam Scales full of praise for his Celtic teammateÂ
Scales had spoken earlier in the week about how Johnston was an important member of the squad and a major voice in the changing room, when it comes to leadership. So much so, his prowess was woefully missed when the big Canadian was out with a recurring hamstring problem, which kept him out for a vast amount of time last year.
Such is the bond and camaraderie in the group, Johnston’s Irish teammate revealed that everyone tried their best to keep AJ buoyant, during what must have been a terribly testing time for the right-back.
Alistair Johnston’s return from injury helped Celtic win the doubleÂ
That seemed to have paid off for everyone, as Celtic got Alistair back for the business end of the campaign, where he helped push us over that line.
Now Scales and his manager, Martin O’Neill, will be hoping and praying that Alistair Johnston stays put this year, with rumours of Premier League interest apparent for some time now.
It would be an awful blow to lose AJ this close season, with so much turmoil already embroiling the club in respect to recruitment. The last thing we need at this point, is having more quality stripped from a side which is already in need of quality additions.
Honours even in head-off between Celtic teammatesÂ
As for the result of clash between the two Celts, the match ended 1-1, with goals from Everton star Jake O’Brien and Ipswich winger Chiedoze Ogbene.
Alistair Johnston and his national team will now be concentrating fully on the group phase of the World Cup, where they will face-off against Bosnia-Herzegovina, Qatar and Switzerland. Scales, meanwhile, will be enjoying some time off before pre-season begins again under fellow Irishman O’Neill.
Here are the highlights from that 1-1 draw between Canada and Republic of Ireland on Friday….
Paul Gillespie
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