IT isn’t often you’ll see a player with his head in his hands after his team have scored, but James Forrest had reason to after Ryan Christie sealed Celtic’s win with the third goal in their 3-1 win over Kilmarnock.
Forrest had met a Boli Bolingoli cross flush with his forehead from close range, and couldn’t believe it as Killie keeper Laurentiu Branescu pulled off a wonder save. While he was pleased to see teammate Christie tucking in the rebound, the fact his brother Alan scored a rare header for Ayr United in their win over Alloa on Saturday still had him cursing his luck.
“It was just because I don’t score many headers!” Forrest said. “I’ve only ever scored one, at Kilmarnock, but that was from about two yards out.
“My wee brother scored a header yesterday as well, so I was desperate for that one.
“The boys told me afterwards it was a brilliant save from the keeper, but I think they were just trying to make me feel better. I must admit I was a bit gutted.
“Their goalie was right up for it right from the start and he make a good few saves. He made us work for the goals but it’s always tough against Kilmarnock, home or away.
“We played really well and the boys enjoyed it. We were happy with it. The manager told us we’d need to be at it right from the start and we managed to keep it going. We scored three but we could have had a lot more. I know I could.
“There are some games in the season when you might get one chance and you score. Then there are ones like today where I had four or five chances but it just didn’t happen.
“But it shows you are playing well and with confidence when you are getting plenty of chances. If you keep doing the right things then the goals will come.”
Forrest said that the depth of Celtic’s squad as well as the momentum they have built up through their results has allowed them to cope with their hectic schedule.
“Since we came back in pre-season we’ve been to a lot of places and played in a lot of different competitions,” he said.
“The squad is really big though and its competitive, and as the manager said, we’ve had a really good start.
“We got a really good result the other night, but we wanted to put that to bed, make sure we got back with a really good performance.
“The win was the most important thing, but I think we got everything.”
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 here