“I hope Canada woke up early,” Alistair Johnston

Alistair Johnston has only been through the door at Celtic Park a matter of weeks really, but that hasn’t stopped the athletic, Canadian World Cup star from making his mark in this current Celtic team. Having had big shoes to fill in Vinicius Junior-shackling Josip Juranovic, the 24-year-old was pitched in at the deep end from the start and has done swimmingly.

With as good a debut Glasgow Derby as your likely to see on 2 January at Ibrox, the former FC Montreal man has taken eveything in his stride and looks to have settled in really well at Lennoxtown too with his comrades. Yesterday, he opened his goal-scoring account for the Hoops with a headed effort to put us 2-1 ahead after coming from behind due to another VAR episode.

The goal was a just reward for a Player who is never short of endeavour out there on the pitch and goes to war for this club and it’s supporters. Johnston was giving his post-match thoughts to Celtic TV after the game and this is what he had to say on it. “I’m going to take it and claim it, he said of his deflected, headed goal that set the wheels in motion for another demolition job in the Scottish Premiership.

“It felt like mine and I celebrated like it was mine. I hope Canada woke up early for that kick-off to see that and it was an important one. We knew at half-time being down a goal but up and man we had to stick to what we were doing and we got the equaliser and then it felt good to at least be part of the goal that pushed us ahead. It was a good result in the end and a good performance in the second-half.

“Our leadership helped us not get off the script and to keep creating chances and it paid off and it’s a credit to the manager for keeping everyone level-headed at half-time. We kept playing our football and our subs came on and made a difference and raised the levels again and then once we got the first we knew we would get the next and we kept going.”

Just like his manager, Ally was fulsome in his appraisal of his teammate, Liel Abada, who really lit the flame that started the fire in the second half of the game on Sunday. He said: “He’s so dynamic and that goes to show for all our wingers. They all pose a slightly different threat, they’re so talented and they are a nightmare. I know as a full-back when you go up against someone for 60 minutes and they run you ragged and then all of a sudden a new fresh player comes on with a new threat it’s always a nightmare.”

It’s no rest for the Bhoys though and there is no time to sit back and admire their graft and guile in Paisley, as they have Heart of Midlothian at Parkhead to contend with on Wednesday evening in what should be a classic encounter. He added: “We know the most important thing is getting the results. As long as we’re keeping clean sheets and progressing then I’m happy and it’s a good start to a big week.”