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Tomorrow At Rugby Park We Can Take Another Step Towards A Grand Ambition

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If Celtic’s trio of Scott Brown, James Forrest and Leigh Griffiths are especially ruthless tomorrow night, don’t be in the least bit surprised.

All suffered a frustrating Friday last week; it will be no great shock if they take that pent up emotion out on Kilmarnock, a team we owe no mercy and who are fans don’t exactly love like brothers and sisters.

This has a happy hunting ground for us over the years, but for the Scottish contingent it will be a night to erase the ghosts of Wembley. Having watched the game I cannot for the life of me understand the hype over Lee Wallace.

Scott Brown was the best man in the Scotland team, with his aggressive pressing game coming right of the Brendan Rodgers playbook. Forrest had a dismal evening but I thought Leigh, like Scot, fought for every fifty-fifty and gave the English defence a few headaches.

They will aim to give Kilmarnock the same tomorrow, and I would bet on them doing just that, which presupposes that Leigh will start in the first place. I have a feeling he will; Moussa will have returned from international duty on Monday night, and I think the manager will rest him. He performed brilliantly against his own English opponents, with two goals and all round performance that will have had the watching scouts drooling.

Too bad. He’s ours!

Celtic fans have sold out their part of the stadium; this has become rare in recent years at Rugby Park, because of a long-standing boycott of the ground. That’s a symptom of the Rodgers Effect and the way we’re playing at the moment.

With us facing Barcelona on Wednesday next week I do think we’ll make some changes for this game. As I’ve said, I can see Leigh starting ahead of Moussa. I think it would be good to see young Christie given a game as well, and perhaps Liam Henderson, who’s been annoying some people with the noise he’s making about wanting to return to Hibs.

I understand his frustration, but every Celtic player should be focussed on fighting for a place in the team. If the club wants to loan you out, that’s different. Until that’s made clear nobody should be talking as if they’ve chucked it already.

I like Liam, and think he’s a good asset to the squad. I want to see him battle for his future, and I hope he does.

This game will see us stretch our lead at the top of the table.

It’ll also take us a step closer to finishing the year unbeaten in the Rodgers era. Can we go through the season without losing a league game? I’ve said no already, but you never can tell. The longer we go on unbeaten the more pressure will grow on us to make it; ironically I think that might be what makes us do it. Because my concern has long been that the players will switch off once the league race is tied up. But a record like that … it would keep us focussed.

So here’s to three points tomorrow night and another step closer to what, this time last year, would have seemed like a goal beyond the potential of our team.

Nowadays we dare to dream.

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