JOE’S CROWD PLEASER AT CELTIC PARK
JOE SHAUGHNESSY knows nearly 60,000 Celtic fans will be baying for St Mirren’s blood as Ange Postecoglou’s team try to make them their sixth victim in a row.
But the Buddies captain wouldn’t have it any other way, having sampled the other way last season.
Saints went to Celtic Park and won in a manner that would’ve silenced the home crowd had anyone been allowed in to see it.
Tomorrow a new-look Celtic side and a full house will make it a different experience and the Irish centre-back can’t wait.
Shaughnessy said: “I would rather it was a full stadium. Playing in front of no fans was not a good experience. It wasn’t proper football.
“These are the games you want to be playing with 50,000 in the ground.
“This is a chance for us to go and show we can be taken seriously.
“It would have been much better if there was a full stadium to witness the victory but it was still a great result for us. It still meant as much.
“It is something a lot of us had not done before – going to Parkhead and getting a result.
“It will give the lads the belief and tell us the result is in there if we can play to our potential.”
Celtic were struggling when Saints beat them 2-1 in January but a win over Rangers in the League Cup a month earlier, when the Ibrox side were flying, has convinced Shaughnessy his team can match anyone on their day.
And although they’ve taken just one point from the first two league games, he believes tomorrow can be their day. The 29-yearold added: “‘No one outside of the dressing room fancied us the night we got that result against Rangers.
“We showed what we could do. It wasn’t a smashand-grab type of thing – we played good football and scored three goals.
“You take confidence from results like that and it shows what we’re capable
of when we play well.
“It’s trying to get the balance right between defending well and not getting dragged about against Celtic.
“Usually their front five have very good movement.
“You have to be switched on to all the runs they are making. It’s a challenge but we all look forward to going there and putting our mark on the game.”
Shaughnessy reckons locking horns with Kyogo Furuhashi for the first time will be a great experience.
The defender said: “He is a different type of striker.
“I probably wouldn’t be able to keep up with him in a race but you try to read where he will go.
“It is a different type of defending. You can’t always come up against big 6ft-plus strikers who want to wrestle with you.
“Sometimes you have to deal with smaller guys like him. You have to test yourself against these type of players and see how you come out.”