Celtic captain Callum McGregor has urged his teammates to get all three points when they venture to McDiarmid Park on Sunday to face St Johnstone. The game will be the final game before the Winter Break begins on December 27th, which was brought forward due to the decision to limit fan numbers to just 500 for three weeks.
McGregor told the Celtic website that the team have enjoyed a successful start to life under Ange Postecoglou but need to improve in the final third, as they cope with absentees in the attacking department.
“In football, if you ever need a reminder of what the game can do, that was it the other night – you go from Sunday to that.
“We know exactly where we are as a group and where we want to get to, but there’s still a lot of work to do to get there.
‘We can’t get too carried away and focus on the one result. We’ve been winning games for a long time now and we’ve been consistent over a period of time.’
“We’ve been looking like the team we want to be. We want to add a bit of quality to that in the moments we need, but it’s been a good body of work over the period so far, in terms of where we started to where we are.
“We just need to stay calm and stay focused.”
Postecoglou was forced to make a number of changes as Joe Hart, David Turnbull and Kyogo were missing from the matchday squad, joining Giorgos Giakoumakis, Albian Ajeti, James Forrest and Jota on the injury front. The makeshift front three of Mikey Johnston, Liel Abada and Owen Moffat struggled to create an opening against a Saints defence that were penned into their own 18-yard box. Celtic will likely come up against the same resistance in Perth.
Callum Davidson’s side are bottom of the table after a dismal first half of the season, a far cry from the Cup Double success of last season. However, they will be a stern opponent, that will battle for everything.
McGregor lifted his first trophy as Celtic captain in the win over Hibs at Hampden last weekend. The draw against a depleted St Mirren highlighted that Celtic’s threadbare squad needed immediate reinforcements to propel Ange’s team ahead in the title race.
