FOR a man dragged back from his holidays several weeks earlier than we would have wanted to return to work, Scott Brown was in one heck of a good mood yesterday.

There were jokes about his age, he recently turned 30, and that he was an old man now, albeit it one who resisted any birthday cake because "I don't eat cake..I'm a 24/7 athlete" said as he patted his impressively flat stomach.

Brown was glad to be at Lennoxtown after a little over a fortnight to rest his body because he loves being a footballer, specifically being a Celtic footballer, and with so much to play for this season, at home and he hopes in Europe, plus the genuine chance he has of leading Scotland to the European Championships in France, why would he not be a happy man?

But his mood darkened, just a little and not for long, when he was asked what ambitions he had left in his career. There is really only one, a dream that was taken away from him in April and it's a memory of a handball by Inverness Caledonian defender Josh Meekings that will stick with him until he achieves all of his goals.

"The one ambition I have left at Celtic is to go and get the Treble," Brown said: "Everyone talks about it, we were so close last year, and it would be great to do it. One decision pretty much cost us a cup final place last season when we would have had the chance to do it. We are getting closer but we need to really go for it this season.

"That semi-final still sticks in my mind. Why? Because there were five officials and none of them saw it. It's amazing, that. But five of them had a view - brilliant. I think it was just hard to take. Especially with the decision because we would have gone in 2-0 up at half-time if we had scored the penalty.

"They would have been down to ten men and it would have changed the game. But these things happen and you have to deal with it. You have to go on to the next season. It's a new start for us and we have to do what we done, but get past that semi-final stage.

"I think you can use this for motivation, but you don't want to keep going back to 'Oh, we could have done it.' We need to go and do it. It's going to be hard to win the games in the two cup competitions but I think we have the players in that dressing room who can do it. I think if everyone believes then we can definitely push ourselves a little bit closer."

Brown's enthusiasm and attitude are infectious. If there is any one person in Scottish football who recognises that they are fortunate, then it's this man. It's what makes him a popular figure and one who has grown into his role as one of the country's finest players.

He claims to be the same person who at 17 came snarling his way into the Hibernian first-team, however, these days he is much calmer, honest, and enjoys his role as an elder statesman in the Celtic dressing room.

"We are lucky to do what we are doing as footballers. It's a passion and a job you think growing up will just be a hobby," Brown said: "I have been lucky enough to play for Hibs and come to a great club in Celtic and do the thing I most enjoy.

"Gary Smith and Stephen Glass were the older boys at Hibs when I was coming through. I got on really well with them. They were chilled out and I still speak to Stephen. They were older pros that I used to look up to.

"In my head I still feel as young as ever but I know that slowly it's getting towards the end. You just have to enjoy it as much as you can. I work as hard as I can on the training field and enjoy it. If you don't, you'd be as well just chucking it."

Brown is some way from chucking it. He has a lengthy contract and there is no reason why he can't maintain his level of performance for a good while yet.

Asked about what his motivation is, Brown said: "To play football, to play in front of 60,000 fans. When you are young, you don't think that will ever happen. To do it and then keep doing it over a lot of seasons, I'm in a great situation. I have another three years left on my contract and hopefully they will be another three good years."

Brown and Ronny Deila clicked very early on. Captain and manager have a lot of time for one another. The player felt for his new boss a year ago when he himself was out injured, while the club suffered deep disappointment in the early part of their European campaign, For those who were involved, this is something that simply won't happen again.

"It was difficult for a new manager coming in, he won't have known everyone and how we played, " Brown said. "He needed to give everyone a chance to find out the ones he wanted to keep and the ones he wanted to bring in.

"I think he did that really well. The first three or four weeks were difficult and I am sure he wouldn't have expected it to be as full on as it was. It's two weeks and you are straight in to it. If we get to that last qualifier that's when you hit your peak fitness. We still should be good enough on and off the ball to get through this one."