Celtic star wants victory at Ibrox! ‘Seven league games left, maximum points is the target’

JONNY HAYES had an eventful weekend. On Saturday he was told that he’d be starting against the Rangers – The Celtic Star gave you the team early on Sunday morning, 100% spot on as usual – and he followed that up with 45 minutes when he was in the thick of it as Celtic dominated the self proclaimed best team in the league. Hayes picked up a card though and with the Rangers down to ten men after the latest sending off for Colombian gangster Alfredo Morelos, Neil Lennon didn’t fancy giving Bobby Madden the chance to level things up.

So Hayes was replaced by Scotty Sinclair who almost doubled the lead himself. The Rangers came back into it, Celtic lost first Kieran Tierney and then Dedryck Boyata through injury and by that time Neil Lennon had used all his substitutions so it was 10 v 10 after all.

All’s well that ends well though as Jonny explains to The Celtic View.

“What a result,” he said. “Games like that get emotional and I’m disappointed that we didn’t kick on and get two or three. We let them back into the game but that resilience and winning mentality came into play again.

With the score level going into the last five minutes things were getting rather tense of the Celtic bench.

“Kieran and I were both sitting next to each other watching from the sidelines and we couldn’t watch at times because of all the emotions in the game. As soon as we scored the second goal we were just waiting for the final whistle.

“Kieran and I had this joke about how much we’d pay for the final whistle right then, even though we could have scored another couple after the second. The win was paramount, and having that 13-point lead gives us a bit more of a cushion now.”

Both James Forrest and Odsonne Edouard – or Awesome Edouard as some are calling him – both made one and scored one in the game. Hayes was raving about the player everyone knows as French Eddie after yet another big game success for the striker.

“I thought Odsonne Edouard was brilliant. Some of the things he does is incredible. He has a history of doing that, like at Ibrox last year and against Aberdeen when he came on. Some of the things he does with the ball are brilliant.

“He’s scored a couple of important goals over the last couple of weeks, but that performance in the derby, with the goal and the assist, was excellent.”

There was some speculation that Hayes had picked up an injury but he’s fine and good to go at Paisley tomorrow night against St Mirren. The players who didn’t train today were Craig Gordon, Dedryck Boyata (hamstring), Filip Benkovic (ankle), Nir Bitton and Bayo who came back from international duty with a knock. Everyone else is fine.

A win tomorrow could see Celtic win the league this Saturday against Livingston if Hearts get a win at Ibrox tomorrow. Hayes is just thinking about getting the job done, and celebrating whenever it happens. Celebrating is a problem though, depending on who is doing it.

“We have seven league games left,” said Hayes, “and securing maximum points is the target. It might not happen, but it’s what we aim for, what we strive for. We’ll recover and then prepare for the next game, which is always the most important one.”

Read the full interview with Jonny Hayes in the Celtic View. On sale from Wednesday.

About Author

The Celtic Star founder and editor, who has edited numerous Celtic books over the past decade or so including several from Lisbon Lions, Willie Wallace, Tommy Gemmell and Jim Craig. Earliest Celtic memories include a win over East Fife at Celtic Park and the 4-1 League Cup loss to Partick Thistle as a 6 year old. Best game? Easy 4-2, 1979 when Ten Men Won the League. Email editor@thecelticstar.co.uk

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