Craig Gordon has revealed Celtic first started targeting their blemish-free treble triumph as far back as January.
The rampant Hoops completed the clean sweep with their William Hill Scottish Cup win on Saturday.
The 2-1 victory over Aberdeen saw Brendan Rodgers' 'Invincibles' chalk up a remarkable 47th domestic game without defeat this campaign.
The Parkhead club became the first Scottish side to pass an entire top-flight season without loss since Rangers won all 18 of their old First Division fixtures back in 1898/99.
Read more: Celtic youngster Kieran Tierney's rush through Aberdeen fans for Scottish Cup presentation
And now goalkeeper Gordon has told how he and the rest of his team-mates realised they were on the brink of something special as they flew out to their winter training camp in Dubai.
He said: "We wanted to win everything that we could but to do it undefeated was probably beyond anyone's expectations.
"But I remember when we got to the halfway point and went out to our training camp in Dubai that everyone was thinking, 'This is on, we can do this'.
"We came back from there and stepped it up a level from where we were in the first part of the season. We kept improving as we went along.
"I don't think we've even begun to achieve what we have achieved just now.
"It's an absolutely incredible achievement.
"I'm a bit older than the rest and I know that it's probably not going to get done again, not for a very long time anyway.
"We have to enjoy it for what it is. It was an amazing season and I don't think we could have asked for much more."
No team has even completed back-to-back Scottish trebles but Gordon reckons that feat is next on his side's to do list.
"We'll try," he said. "It's probably unrealistic to think that will get done again but we're certainly going to try and see if we can extend that unbeaten run as long as we can.
"It will come to an end one day but it's just great to be involved in it."
The Hoops were given their toughest examination of the campaign by the Dons at Hampden.
Read more: Celtic youngster Kieran Tierney's rush through Aberdeen fans for Scottish Cup presentation
But they responded immediately to Jonny Hayes' early opener with Stuart Armstrong's leveller before Tom Rogic made history with his stoppage-time winner.
And Gordon believes his team gave a display of a steeliness they have seldom had to rely on this term as they completed the club's first treble since 2001.
He said: "Of course there was pressure on us to wrap up the treble. I think you saw that early in Saturday's game.
"We started a little bit slow which we haven't been doing, especially recently.
"It took us a little bit of time to play ourselves into the game. We went behind but had to show what we were made of. We've not had to do that too often but when we have had to, everyone stays calm as we know what we have to do to get back into the game.
"We got a quick reply from Stuart which really settled us down and we've then ground it out in the end."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel