Celtic have their sights set on another treble

CELTIC will win the Scottish title, but for now the ribbons remain off the trophy for another season.

A stutter against St Johnstone—where the champions-elect were woeful against the league’s relegation fodder—meant that even after blowing away Kilmarnock on what should have been a title-winning day at Celtic Park, the league championship still lurks just out of view.

With a 15-point lead and only 15 points to play for—combined with a mammoth goal difference advantage over their city rivals—Celtic will undoubtedly clinch the title, and, for now attentions turn to the Scottish Cup where a treble is the goal for Celtic.

St Johnstone—who Celtic struggled against so badly on league duty—will provide the opposition, and after changes to the starting 11 against Kilmarnock showed such excellent results in the first-half of that match, Celtic will hoping that the form of recent weeks can be put behind them.

Form is temporary

Manager Brendan Rodgers was quick to highlight how hitting form at this stage of the season can let Celtic perform to the peak of their powers as the curtain comes down on yet another successful year for the club—and could yet result in another famous treble.

He had come in for some criticism following a derby defeat at Celtic Park and a series of lacklustre and laborious performances, and while there was some merit in looking more closely at his own decisions—and the level of performances which his players were offering him—it wouldn't be the first time his side has found its feet with the sun shining and trophies up for grabs.

“The reaction was important for us,” Rodgers said. “The overall game is how we want to work, how we want to play.

“I said to the players beforehand that today is about a winning attitude. Mix that with talent and then we’ll always play with big quality. For large parts of the season that’s what we’ve done, so today sets the standard for us for the remainder of the season.

“It was a brilliant reaction from the players and a wonderful performance. It all comes from the mentality and ambition. The players who came in to the team were brilliant. Everything which is good about this team we seen today.”

Direct from back to front

The victory over Kilmarnock was refreshing for another reason, with the first-half showing Celtic in much more direct mood than they have been from some time—a directness which even saw central defender Cameron Carter-Vickers charge forward to laser a effort from distance into the top corner.

“I think Cameron’s goal surprised 60,000 people, but it shows you his confidence,” Rodgers continued. “We were forcing them back at that point, but nobody would have thought, from that distance, he would have got the strike. But it was a hell of a strike and a brilliant goal.

“We wanted to go in to next week with that winning ambition and today was perfect. It’s perfect preparation. We can now recover, get our plan ready for next week and look to get to the final.”

The unusual source of a goal-of-the-season contender hinted at a change for Celtic, but it is the ambition to end the season in the time-honoured fashion which drives the players at the club on now.

“I stepped in and hit it and it flew in, and I probably couldn’t do that again if I tried, but it went in so I’m happy,” Carter-Vickers said after his goal. “We wanted to win the game, and whether we win or lose the previous game, our mentality is to focus on the next game and try and perform and do well in the next one, and that’s what we did today.

“At the start of the season we want to win every competition we’re part of. We’re getting close now but we know there’s still work to do so we’ve got to Hampden there next weekend, perform well and hopefully get into another final.”

All eyes on Hampden

If Celtic do find their way to Hampden to contest another Scottish Cup Final it will offer a chance to add yet more honours to the club during this period of unprecedented success, and will show that for all there has been an element of frustration in these past few weeks that Celtic are never far away from their next achievement.

It will also indicate that even with difficulties Celtic are so far ahead of the pack as to be essentially untouchable in Scotland. A victory at Ibrox, too, would go some way to resetting the relationship between the city rivals.

The league might all be over, but there’s still plenty for Celtic to aim at in these last few weeks of football before the summer.