Ten games, ten wins, two trophies. That’s the target Stephen Welsh has set his Celtic team-mates to deliver when the international break is over and we return to domestic action as Celtic battle to retain the Scottish Premiership title for the 12th time in 13 seasons and also the Scottish Cup, which Celtic has won more than any club dead or alive.
“It was mentioned before the St Johnstone game that we’ve got the break coming up so we need to put ourselves in a good position going into the last few games of the season,” the former Scotland Under 21 captain said after Celtic’s 3-1 victory at the weekend over Craig Levein’s side.
“It’s been up and down for us this season. We’ve not been fully firing, but we’re still in a good position. We’ve put in a good performance, got a good win over St Johnstone and that’ll see us into the next few games. It is a big push from everyone,” Welsh said as reported by Glasgow Times.
“Hopefully we will get everyone back fit. We have got a great squad of players. It is a good environment to be in every day and we are all just pushing each other to be the best we can be as players and as a team. Yeah, it will be one big, big push.
“We have always believed in ourselves. That doesn’t change. We don’t listen to any outside noise. The only people who can control what happens are in the changing room. We train every day and we come out on a match day and give absolutely everything to the club to win and perform well. It gives us a good pedestal to push on now.
“We don’t need favours. All we are thinking about is winning the next game which is Livingston away. Then we go on again and we will see where it takes us.”
The Celtic Academy graduate added: “We are still fighting for two trophies. We are in a semi-final against Aberdeen and we are very much looking forward to that when it comes. We are fighting on all fronts and it will take one big push from us. We are really looking forward to it. It is exciting to be involved.
“I think we have experience in the team as well. We were obviously very successful in the last couple of seasons and the vast majority of the players are still here. We have got the experience of going and winning things so hopefully we can use that as well.
“It is massive. It is a mentality thing as well going into the last few games of the season. Obviously the gaffer was here before and was very successful first time. He knows what it takes to do it as well. We are just taking it one game at a time. We have got a good break now and we can recover and get some good training in. Then we can push on.”
WHAT’S NEXT FOR CELTIC
Celtic return to action on Sunday 31 March with a trip to West Lothian to take on David Martindale’s Livingston side who are ten points adrift of Ross County at the bottom of the Scottish Premiership and look doomed to drop into the Championship and a very uncertain future.
There are three confirmed fixtures in April at this stage, ahead of the post-split fixtures being confirmed. Brendan Rodgers takes his side to Ibrox on Sunday 6 April before playing St Mirren at Celtic Park on Saturday 13 April. Then it’s a trip to Hampden for the Scottish Cup semi-final against Aberdeen on Saturday 20 April and we should be hearing about the ticket situation for that one shortly.
CELTIC’S POSSIBLE POST-SPLIT FIXTURES
In terms of the split we know we’ll have a home game against theRangers and we’ll also have two more games at Celtic Park. As things stand the top six sides are Celtic, theRangers, Hearts, Kilmarnock, St Mirren and Hibs with Dundee just two points adrift of the Easter Road side with a game in hand. A win yesterday against theRangers would have seen Dundee move into the top six. So that game when it’s played will be very important to the Dens Park club.
Celtic should also have a home game against Hearts and probably Hibs if they make the top six.
The two away games will most likely be against Kilmarnock and St Mirren, although we could also possibly end up back at Dens Park if Dundee make it. However it’s perhaps possible that Dundee would have to visit Celtic Park for a third time this season if they do make the top six. That’s just our thoughts on what’s to come for Celtic for the rest of this season.
Hopefully there will also be an appearance at the Scottish Cup Final on Saturday 25 May 2024.
