IT isn’t easy being a second or third choice goalkeeper when you know deep inside that you are good enough to be No 1.
No-one is more acquainted with that feeling than Fraser Forster, who went from being an established England squad member for the 2014 World Cup and Euro 2016 to the odd man out at Southampton behind both the emerging duo of Angus Gunn and Alex McCarthy.
So it was only fitting that the 6ft 7in custodian should give some of the credit for the burgeoning form which so frustrated in the Europa League last week to the two fully-fledged Scotland internationals who are currently plugging away diligently behind him in the pecking order at Lennoxtown under Neil Lennon and the club’s long-time goalkeeper coach Stevie Woods.
Both Craig Gordon and Scott Bain know what it feels like to be first-choice picks for both their club and their country in the past but Forster insisted last night that he couldn’t praise either man enough for the support he has received since returning to the club.
With five clean sheets in seven league matches to date - Forster averages roughly one every two games and has in excess of 100 to his name at the club already - the Englishman has quickly re-established himself as the No 1 at the club.
But with the games coming thick and fast, it remains to be seen whether Neil Lennon will stick with Gordon, who has played all the club’s BetFred Cup matches so far, in Saturday’s semi-final against Hibs at Hampden.
“It’s a fantastic atmosphere,” said Forster. “We all know how hard the position is.
“We all want the best for each other.
“Both are Scotland internationals and are very good keepers,” he added. “As a player, you have to support the others. That’s the main thing – to help the team.”
While the main focus this week is a meeting with St Mirren in the club’s pursuit of a ninth successive league title and a semi-final showdown with Hibs as they bid for their tenth successive domestic honour, Celtic are sitting pretty at the top of Group E at the halfway point in their Europa League qualification campaign ahead of the trip to Rome for the return match against Lazio.
It could yet take an outlandish points tally to make it out of the section, but Forster knows that bringing a positive result back from the Stadio Olimpico would consolidate their stranglehold on a knockout spot.
“Lazio felt like a massive win,” the 31-year-old goalkeeper admitted. “We said at the start of the group that home games were going to be crucial.
“Fortunately, we’ve won both of them now but the group is still so open as everyone keeps beating everyone.
“You just don’t know what’s going to happen. We still have our last home game against Rennes which will be important.
“But we can take a lot of confidence out of the games we’ve played so far.
“It’s a very tough away game we’ve got coming up next but with performances and the way we’ve played we’ve got nothing to be scared of.”
The demands at a club like Celtic are huge but that is why Neil Lennon has assembled such a large, quality-laden squad at Lennoxtown.
Forster, whose last cap for England came in a pre-European Championship friendly against Australia in May 2016, believes a standard has been set in the recent matches against Lazio and Aberdeen and sees more than enough as he looks around him in the dressing room to keep challenging on various fronts simultaneously.
In terms of numbers at least, it is a group which seems stronger even than the one he featured in during his previous trophy-laden stint at the club under the Northern Irishman, which ended with him earning that £10m move to the South Coast club in the first place.
“It can be hard but that’s life as Celtic player – you’ve got the league, the cups and the Europa League – and every game you have got to win.
“But we’ve got a very good squad with loads of experience even though there are a lot of players within that,” he added.
“There’s a standard which we set – a level we need to play at game in game out.”
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