Confidence high in Celtic camp, says Forrest
Glasgow (AFP) – Winger James Forrest says confidence among the Celtic players is sky high ahead of their crucial Champions League play-off match against Hapoel Beer-Sheva. The Hoops star grabbed the third goal in a 4-2 win over St Johnstone in the Scottish Premiership on Saturday as the champions warmed up for the return leg in Israel by continuing their winning start to the domestic season. Celtic will take a 5-2 advantage into the tie at the Turner Stadium in Israel on Tuesday and Forrest, who recently signed a new three-year deal at the club, hailed the positive impact new
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Glasgow (AFP) – Winger James Forrest says confidence among the Celtic players is sky high ahead of their crucial Champions League play-off match against Hapoel Beer-Sheva.
The Hoops star grabbed the third goal in a 4-2 win over St Johnstone in the Scottish Premiership on Saturday as the champions warmed up for the return leg in Israel by continuing their winning start to the domestic season.
Celtic will take a 5-2 advantage into the tie at the Turner Stadium in Israel on Tuesday and Forrest, who recently signed a new three-year deal at the club, hailed the positive impact new manager Brendan Rodgers was having on the squad.
“Confidence is going through the full team just now since the start of pre-season. We’re kicking on and hopefully we can take that confidence into Tuesday night,” the winger said.
“I just think since day one of pre-season it has been hard training and everybody has been benefiting from it –- fitness and football-wise as well. The more games we play we can kick on from there and I think we did that today.
“This is a hard place to come to and get three points,” Forrest added of the game at McDiarmid Park.
“We had a good performance on Wednesday and had a good result. Everyone wanted to play and come here because it is still important to get the three points and keep the momentum going for Tuesday night.”
The Scottish champions dominated the first half in Perth as Leigh Griffiths marked his 26th birthday with a fine finish in the 28th minute before Scott Sinclair grabbed his third goal since joining from Aston Villa earlier this month when he fired home in the 40th minute.
Forrest added a third following a rampaging run in the 44th minute as Celtic appeared to be cruising to victory.
But there were moments of concern in the second half as the Hoops saw a 3-0 lead slip back to 3-2 for the second time in the space of a week — Hapoel Beer-Sheva had done the same in Glasgow before Celtic won 5-2.
Danny Swanson scored from the penalty spot and Steven MacLean made it 3-2 in the 89th minute when Celtic were temporarily down to 10 men as Liam Henderson received treatment before substitute Ryan Christie made it more comfortable for the Hoops with a stoppage-time strike.
– ‘Bitter taste’ –
However, Rodgers said he couldn’t criticise his side too much.
“I thought for 99.9 per cent of the match the team were outstanding,” Rodgers said.
“Right through to the last 10 minutes of that game we had a brilliant team performance.
“It leaves a bitter taste in the mouth when you concede two goals when you’ve had the majority of the game.
“It was bad decision-making. We shouldn’t be so rash in the box. Young Liam Henderson has to learn from that.
“Then we concede a soft goal when we were down to 10 men but apart from that I’ve got no criticism.
“Some of the football, in the first half in particular, was very impressive and a joy to watch at times.
“We still have a lot of improvements to make of course but we’ll travel to Israel in good confidence. But we have to respect that they are a good side and we still have a bit of work to do.”
Rangers top the Scottish Premiership table by a point, albeit having played a game more than their Old Firm rivals, as they came from behind to defeat Motherwell 2-1.
Scott McDonald had Motherwell in front in the first half but Harry Forrester’s strike levelled matters before Kenny Miller struck the winner in stoppage time.
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