It’s not just a capacity Celtic Park that will be buzzing for the return of football after the winter break, instead if Greg Taylor’s comments as reported by Daily Record are anything to go buy our Bhoys in the changing room can’t wait to return either!
The early call of the Winter Break has proven to have been an outbreak of common sense in Scottish football, well bar a couple of clubs that is – and the fact tonight’s game with Hibs will be in front of a 60,000-sell-out crowd is complete vindication for that decision. And that goes for the players as well as the fans who are looking to learn from the challenges they’ve faced in the first part of the season and take care of the ‘business end ‘ of things, starting tonight.
“We’ve had challenges throughout but we’re not looking to make excuses for ourselves, we just take each game as it comes and try to play the way we want to play.
“Now we’re coming into the business end of the season and hopefully we can put on more performances and the results will take care of themselves.
“We always want to improve. That will be our aim for the next few months. It’s going to be tough, the games are going to come thick and fast and every game is important and every game will be difficult. But the first one we’re focusing on is Hibs and that’ll be a tough game.”
“We are over the moon having the fans back. It is not the same playing with 500 fans or no fans last year. So to have the full stadium – we’re really pleased.”
And Taylor has also been discussing our opponents tonight and the return of the highly respected Shaun Maloney in his first game as a manager at Celtic Park, and he brings with him a 100% record with two wins from two since succeeding Jack Ross.
“Everyone speaks highly of Shaun here, they say he was a top coach. Hibs have a strong group of players, so we know it’s not going to be easy. The cup final was an example of that, they didn’t have a permanent manager and it was still an extremely difficult.
“We know it’s going to be difficult again but we need to be ready and I’m sure we will be.”
Greg Taylor of course will be delighted to be playing in front of 60,000 fans just as much as anyone heading to Celtic Park tonight will be excited by the prospect. However as much as it’s good to be back, Shaun Maloney’s team will prove a tough opponent, indeed it could be those fans who as ever make the difference. And while Taylor will lap that up, Maloney will know the crowd, as much as the team Ange Postecoglou chooses, will ensure his players are up against it tonight.
Niall J
