“It’s been a long time since I’ve played two and then three games in-a-row,” Scott ‘Boxer’* Bain noted as he looked ahead to this evening’s Europa League match against Sparta Prague at Celtic Park.
His manager made it clear yesterday that Bain will keep the gloves tonight and going forward and it is going to be a case of Bain continuing to impress Neil Lennon with his performances to ensure that summer signing Vasilis Barkas is going to be watching games from the sidelines.
“It was really important for me to talk to myself, to make sure I was going to be okay mentally and to think about how I was going to prepare for coming back in,” Bain told the Celtic View. “I basically always try to be ready mentally and, of course, physically, so that I never need to get ready.
“First and foremost, again because it’d been a while since I’d played, I had to sit down with myself to give myself the confidence to convince myself I deserve to be here. That I’m good enough to be here, that I could go out there and do myself justice – which in turn can obviously help the team.
“For the manager and the backroom staff to have that confidence in me is great too, that they can trust me and back me to play games, that’s always a bonus.
“It’s always good when you can perform on the big stage in European games. It shows that you’re capable of playing at that level, which gives you an added boost, in comparison to playing in the Scottish league.
“There, you’re playing against even more top-quality players, and if you’re standing out and doing well, that just builds the confidence even more,” Bain added. “When you come into the team having not played a lot of football, every game is about asking yourself: what can I build on from the last one?
“And by doing that for yourself, that naturally helps the team continue to build as well.”
* Ask Neil McCann is you don’t know the story. Fly-on-the-Wall CSC…
