McGrain 9 Ralston 10 – “I hadn’t realised I’ve now scored more goals than Danny”

Anthony Ralston has now scored more goals for Celtic than Danny McGrain who rather surprisingly scored nine times for the Hoops. Danny’s finishing was of course legendary and was a bit of a running joke throughout his illustrious career as a truly world class performer happy to remain at Celtic.

Recently I had the pleasure of attending a game at Celtic Park, against Ross County, in the company of Danny McGrain. Early in the second half, with Celtic already well ahead in the match, Nir Bitton decided to try his luck at goal but the ball flew high over the crossbar and into the back of the lower Jock Stein stand.

I turned to the Celtic legend and said: “That was like one of yours Danny”, straight away he replied: “I’d have been proud of that one!”

That wee story perhaps gives an indication of Danny’s goalscoring exploits or the lack of them so Tony Ralston edging ahead in the prolific right-back goalscoring stakes for Celtic is perhaps no real surprise – other than realising that Danny got nine goals in 18 years playing for Celtic!

“I hadn’t realised I’ve now scored more goals than Danny – I’ll need to mention it to him,” Anthony Ralston said at yesterday’s media conference ahead of the visit from Blackburn Rovers to Celtic Park today (kick-off 12.30pm). “He’ll love that! I don’t think I’ll ever reach Danny’s levels but at least that’s something I can have over him.

“It was nice to get compared to him, of course, but the one thing I’ve never done is get carried away over things that get said. I keep myself grounded and I gave good people around me to keep my feet on the ground.

“I’m not sure how Danny felt about being compared to me! I managed to get a few goals last season and a couple of big ones – I’ll take it. There were some individual moments but the most important is what we did as a team. There were big moments throughout the season and everyone to a man stepped up.

“That’s why we are champions. We need to do it again and it’s about the team rather than individuals.”

This time last year things were very different. West Ham were the visitors and a young and inexperienced Celtic side, trying to understand the manager’s new system, shipped six goals at home at Celtic Park. That though, according to the Celtic right back, was simply a learning exercise and one well worth taking too given the eventual outcome in a memorable season that has also laid very solid foundations for the new campaign with is just a fortnight away.

“The West Ham game last year was a bit of a learning curve for us,” Ralston explained. “We had a lot of young boys playing and we were getting used to a new system. “We had to take it on the chin. The gaffer knew we’d kick on and it just shows you how things work out.

“We ended up winning the league. Pre-season is about getting game time and match fitness, as well as gelling as a team. It’s about implementing our style of play and you sometimes need a few learning curves along the way at this stage.

“We will up our performance again against Blackburn. The gaffer is looking for us to keep improving. We’ve started very well in pre-season and we want to continue in that way.”

“It’s been good to get the boys back together and we’ve picked up where we left off last season in terms of the standards we expect to hit in training and in the matches.

“It’s good the new lads have had a bit of time to settle in and the others from abroad who arrived last year now have got a taste for it over the course of last season. It’s a lot more settled and we are ready to kick on for the start of the season.

“We’ve had some good games under our belt and we’ve shown we are an aggressive team. The work will continue this weekend and by the time the season comes we’ll be ready to go.”

Here’s Anthony Ralston’s pre-match media conference yesterday ahead of today’s game against Blackburn Rovers at Celtic Park. Kick-off is at 12.30pm and the match is available to all Celtic TV subscribers and is also live on Premier Sports.

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