Celtic winger James Forrest is expecting a fired up Hibs side at Easter Road on Saturday afternoon.
Neil Lennon’s side have the opportunity to move in on second place if they can take something from Brendan Rodgers’ side and, having emerged from the underbelly of the club when Neil Lennon was Celtic manager, Forrest fully expects the hosts to be fully focused on spoiling Celtic’s party.
The Parkhead side can formally claim the league title with a win but it is not something that Forrest is taking for granted.
Read more: Neil Lennon can take over the reins at Celtic whenever Brendan Rodgers moves on
“Neil is the Hibs manager and he’s done really well for them this year.,” said the winger. “Obviously, no-one team wants us to go to their ground and win the league.
“Hibs will be focusing on trying to get a win for themselves and also to stop us winning it.
“They managed a 2-2 draw at Celtic Park earlier in the season and another at Easter Road the following game between us.
“Hibs have some really good players in their team and it’s going to be tough, yet one we are looking forward.
“Every time a team plays Celtic, they are always fired up.
“Hibs have always given us hard games this season. We know that it is not a given going to Easter Road, but the confidence within the group going on from the semi-final last Sunday and with the fans always providing a good away support at Easter Road, we are all delighted to have the chance to do it for ourselves.
“With five games to go and facing the teams around, you would have to say that Hibs can finish second if they put together a wee run.”
Celtic could have more than just a title to celebrate this season. Their Scottish Cup semi-final win over Rangers has put them within one game of claiming an historic back-to-back Treble. Rodgers side went through last season unbeaten as they enjoyed a clean sweep and Forrest is well versed in sweeping any chat about potential achievements to the side.
“Obviously, we don’t want to speak about the Double Treble, but now we have the Final to look forward to,” said the Scotland internationalist.
“There are five big league games to go and we want to take good performances into that Final.
Read more: Graeme McGarry: Rangers players have forgotten who it is they are really playing for
“Last season was unbelievable and, if we could do it again, it would be incredible.
“The final wee push is coming now with six games and we’ll make sure we are at it every one to try and achieve our aims.”
The Celtic players were given Monday and Tuesday off this week as they recovered from their Hampden victory.
“It was different class against Rangers at Hampden,” said Forrest.
“Every game at Celtic, there is a massive pressure. Facing Rangers in a semi-final, you can’t really get much more unless it is an actual final.
“But the manager makes sure we are it and working hard every match and he keeps onto us to do well.”
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