THERE was an increase in confidence among the Celtic support leaving Paradise late yesterday afternoon after the team turned on the style to produce the most accomplished performance of the season against a side that started the day as league leaders and had gone four games without defeat against the Champions.
Minds were wandering to Thursday night’s challenge against Salzburg and the Celtic support are relishing the prospect. And after what happened to him in the away match, the Celtic Star has a personal grudge to settle.
James Forrest was awarded the Man of the Match award by the sponsors but while that was clearly deserved, a case could have been made for so many Celtic stars yesterday who were all simply sensational.
Callum McGregor, Tom Rogic, Emilio Izaguirre, Scotty Sinclair, Ryan Christie – any one of them could have got the nod with five minutes to go from the sponsors and no-one could have argued.
But Jamesy got it and spoke to the media afterwards, with his thoughts also turned to Salzburg.
“Scoring five goals sets us up well for the Salzburg game, and I think we could have scored more against Kilmarnock as well.
“Our last two European performances have been a real boost, and the fans have been unbelievable at home. We know it’s going to be a hard game, it’ll take a real big push from everyone, and hopefully we’ll get a positive result on the night,” yesterday’s Man of the Match said.
Forrest talked about the intensity that Brendan Rodgers has installed into the Celtic side and how that has started to pay big dividends in the past few months, after a shaky start to the season.
“The last couple of months we’ve been a real attacking threat.
“That comes from the whole team, the pressing and how they work hard for each other. You can see that with the amount of chances ww are creating and taking.
“It shows good character form everyone involved with the club, too. In big games, we’ve managed to turn up.
“As everyone has said, Kilmarnock deserve to be up there, and they’ve been doing really well this season. We knew it was going to be a hard game, but we played some really good stuff and I think we can just keep going now until the winter break.
“The manager always wants us to play quick touches in our own half and work the ball towards our forward players. When you get that early goal, you can see the confidence throughout the team building.
“We have a real attacking threat when it’s like that, everyone is running for each other, and you can see how hard everyone is working. When you’re taking those chances as well, it gives everyone a lift.
“We’re at home against Salzburg, and the last two European games we’ve got two wins, which has got us right back in this group.
“Salzburg are a top side and everyone’s going need to be at it for us to make sure we get through. We’re not taking anything for granted. We’ll need to make sure we’re at it right from the first whistle to the end.”
Forrest has his own personal score to settle with Salzburg after being sent off in the away game and also conceding a penalty on the process. Another referee could have seen that incident as a free kick in Celtic’s favour so the red card punishment seemed severe – and unnecessary.
Forrest will be wanting to settle that score on Thursday and with the form he is in few would be prepared to bet against him doing just that.
