In search of European adventure

Nick Rodger

Golf Correspondent

Friday 18 May 2012

James Forrest has had his fair share of publicity over the last couple of weeks and the Celtic winger knows it.

Craig Levein is keen to see James Forrest team up with Blackpool winger Matt Phillips for Scotland. Picture: SNS

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Nick Rodger

"You'll be getting fed up," he said to the usual faces from the domestic press corps before another blether commenced at Parkhead yesterday.

There's been plenty to talk about, of course, during a stellar season which was rewarded with both the Clydesdale Bank Young Player of the Year Award and the PFA Scotland's Young Player gong. Frustratingly for Forrest, the injury he picked up in March's Scottish Communities League Cup final defeat by Kilmarnock has left him in dour old Glasgow toon recuperating while the Scotland squad prepares to head to the sunshine of Florida for next week's friendly with the USA.

That means the 20-year-old will have to wait a bit longer to play his part in what could be a brave new dawn for the national side. Craig Levein is hardly renowned for his attacking zeal – the 4-6-0 formation against the Czech Republic still casts a grim shadow – but the Scotland manager has expressed an adventurous enthusiasm to see both Forrest and Blackpool winger Matt Phillips marauding down the flanks on the international stage.That plan was originally scuppered in March when Aylesbury-born Phillips, 21, was forced to withdraw from the trip to Slovenia with an injury. Now it's Forrest who is on the sidelines. The unleashing of this potentially exciting, effective alliance will have to wait. "Craig told me before the friendly against Slovenia that he wanted to play both Matty and myself," said Forrest. "It's good that he's saying that he is going to play with two out and out wingers. I've seen Matty play a few games, he plays a similar type of position to me and he goes by players as well. We both look to take players on in the final third. It's disappointing for me not being involved this time. I'd been in the last couple of squads and it's great being in and about it."In the weeks since his injury, Forrest has watched Neil Lennon, the Celtic manager, experiment in the closing games of the campaign with the 3-5-2 formation, a throwback to the Martin O'Neill days when the lung-bursting forays of Didier Agathe were a defining feature."I've never played wing-back before but I'm not going to say where I should play," said Forrest when asked about the prospect of reprising the Agathe role when he returns to full fitness. "It's good I can play a lot of positions and I have this season. I've played out wide, up top and in behind the strikers and I feel I've adapted well. Wing-back would be a different position again. I've always got a good relationship with whoever I'm playing in front of, whether it be a right- or left-back. It's part and parcel of the game. I need to help them out as well and I think I do that."Celtic's emphatic capture of this season's league title, finishing 20 points ahead of Rangers, means Champions League football is once more on the agenda, and Forrest is eager to help the Parkhead club reach the group stages for the first time in four years. "We'll just focus on a good pre-season and hopefully get into the Champions League," he said. Lennon recently spoke of the impact Forrest made in their final Europa League match against Udinese in Italy, when a draw was not enough to earn them a place in the knockout stages. And Forrest is keen to build on his European experience. "The UEFA Cup this year was good for a lot of the lads who have not played in that before," said Forrest. "It gave us all experience and hopefully we can take that on this year into the Champions League."As for those awards, the 20-year-old, who has vowed to choose the Champions League qualifiers over the Olympics if selected for Stuart Pearce's Team GB, admitted: "I'm delighted to get a few awards to show what I've done throughout the year, I think my form has been good. I'm just gutted to have been injured for the last few weeks of the season but I've started running in the last week or two. The physios and doctors are happy and I'll definitely be back for pre-season."

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