CELTIC got back to business today at Lennoxtown with players such as Dedryck Boyata returning from international duty and both both Tom Rogic and Olivier Ntcham back from injury and training with the squad as preparations get underway for Sunday’s Glasgow Derby which gives the Bhoys the chance to extend the lead at the top of the Premiership to a massive 13 points.
Jonny Hayes was also training with the squad today and he’s been speaking to the new edition of The Celtic View. The Irish winger has slowly but surely established himself at Celtic and he’ll be one of the names at the end of the season who can be classified as having had a good campaign.
Hayes came on as a second half substitute at Dens Park and did so well that we gave him our Man of the Match award. It was looking like a frustrating afternoon until the sixth minute of stoppage time when James Forrest found Odsonne Edouard who finished in style – and these late winners have been another characteristic of the season for the Hoops.
Hayes looked a bit further back though, to the defeat at Ibrox on 29 December 2018, when the Rangers drew level on points with Celtic and were full of their ‘Going for 55’ bluster. It seems like a lot of hot air now.
“That last game was a long time ago,” the Irishman said. “Things can change relatively quickly in football and we’re playing better now than we did in that game. Whether we won or lost that game, we’re not the kind of team to dwell on past results.
“It’s just another game for us and it’s the next one so it’s the most important game. We’ll go into it wanting to win regardless of opposition or venue. It’ll be no different coming into this game.
“The last few games we’ve had to really grind them out. They’ve not been pretty at times. We had three away games and a tough home game against probably the best away team in the league at the minute in Aberdeen.
“So we’ve had four really tough games and we’ve come through that with a place in the semi-final of the cup and picked up seven points from nine, which is not a bad result, although we would have preferred nine.
“Last minute winners against Hearts and Dundee are big boosts for the team. It gives the team that mental resilience to know that, even if things aren’t going well, we’re still capable of nicking a winner in injury-time.”
Check out the full interview with Jonny Hayes in the new edition of the Celtic View which is sale tomorrow.
