SCOTTY SINCLAIR was interviewed on Football Focus yesterday afternoon. The Preston NE striker, who left Celtic in the January window for an undisclosed fee, was reflecting on the very special time in his career, his three and a half years playing for the Hoops.
Scotty competed in ten domestic competitions while in Scotland and Celtic won them all. He was The Scottish PFA Player of the Year, the Club’s top goalscorer and a Treble Treble winner – and he had on of the best songs ever for a Celtic player, one the Preston fans have inherited.
Yet during his time in Scotland he was also subjected to sustained and sickening racist abuse both at games and online from supporters of club, you know the one that Alfredo Morelos plays for.
Celtic Fans in solidarity with Scott Sinclair. Love Celtic Hate Racism! 🍀 pic.twitter.com/9Y28gyWFVp
— Lee Fitzpatrick (@UncleLroyCFC) July 11, 2017
Here’s a little of the interview…
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/av/football/51422073
Sinclair was arguably Brendan Rodgers’ best signing for Celtic, arriving in a £4.5m deal from Aston Villa in August 2016 and he hit the ground running, coming off the bench to score the winner in the opening Premiership match of what turned out to be an Invincible Treble winning season.
If you look at the Sinclair’s goal celebrations in that game at Tynecastle, when he runs behind the goal to celebrate with the Celtic fans the support he embraces is none other than young Lubo98 of this parish. That moment is captured in a huge photograph which is also on display at Lennoxtown.
And talking about that season Matt Corr, also of this parish, who has been quiet on The Celtic Star recently, has been putting the finishing touches to his first Celtic book and it is about the Invincible season – there have been a few others, but none written like this one.
Back to what Scotty was saying on Football Focus yesterday.
“Obviously, my game time was a little bit restricted coming towards the end and I thought it was time to move on.
“You have gone from playing week in, week out, scoring goals, scoring 60 goals in three seasons and then before you know it, you are sometimes training with the reserves for whichever reason that was.
“That was hard to take, but I had to sort of dig in and stay professional which I did.
“But, yeah, it was a very tough time for me in the last stages,” Scotty said.
Preston had tried to secure his signature in the summer and ahead of that Celtic had taken up the one year option on his contract that the club alone had. Presumably the reason for this was to ensure that he wasn’t walking out the door on a free.
That backfired though and many supporters believed that the decision not to play Sinclair was perhaps influenced by the boardroom rather than the coaches themselves. He did get a game against Partick Thistle in the League Cup in late September last year, coming off the bench to score – and how he celebrated. He said after that it felt so good and that he’d missed that feeling.
It was also celebrated more than a goal in this circumstances would be – Celtic were four goals to the good abasing lower league opposition so the game was already won. But it was Scotty Sinclair scoring, it meant so much to him and it did to the Celtic Support too. He had a magical relationship with the Celtic fans from start to finish.
“It was so special from the moment I walked in the door, winning all the trophies, getting Player Of The Year, top goalscorer it couldn’t have been a better part of my career.
“The fans were unbelievable to me which I am sure I will miss.
“We had a great sort of connection.”
Have a look at some of the content on the PNE twitter account to see how well the former Celtic Star is doing down there. They won away yesterday too…
📽️ Sublime goal from @Scotty_Sinclair to get off the mark for North End! 💥👏#pnefc #COYW pic.twitter.com/mdarfGb6oo
— Preston North End FC (@pnefc) February 2, 2020
📽️ “It’s always good to get your first goal and off the mark.”
Watch the full post-match interview with @Scotty_Sinclair on iFollow PNE now. ➡️ https://t.co/xXQXxIusLT #pnefc pic.twitter.com/O1IJzRD5qI
— Preston North End FC (@pnefc) February 2, 2020
…Happy to get my first goal for the club @pnefc a shame we didn’t take all 3 points, roll on next week..! pic.twitter.com/0F7dEfD7jI
— Scott Sinclair (@Scotty_Sinclair) February 2, 2020
You can read Scotty’s latest interview with the Preston NE website below…
💬 “I’m still hungry and wanting to play and doing as well as I can for the team.”
More from @Scotty_Sinclair. ➡️ https://t.co/xXQXxIcRUl pic.twitter.com/JB7rFxgQhO
— Preston North End FC (@pnefc) February 3, 2020
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