Hazard dead set on his big break
FALKIRK goalkeeper Conor Hazard insists seeing the less glamorous side to football has made sure he will never take his eye off the ball in his bid to make the breakthrough at Celtic.
The 19-year-old has played two games for Paul Hartley’s side since moving out on loan last month, the latest a Scottish Cup victory over Highland League side Cove Rangers at the humble Harlaw Park.
Hazard will take in another one of Scottish football’s iconic sites today – the Brechin City hedge – when the Bairns travel to Glebe Park.
And the Northern Irishman reckons experiencing different environments is just as important as being exposed to first team action.
He said: “I got a chance against Brechin at home and it was great to get a 3-1 victory – then we moved on to Cove, which was a completely different game, the pitch kept digging up and was very heavy.
“I need to understand that part of it as well, I’ve been at Celtic for my whole football career, for the past three years, and everything is there for you and the standards are brilliant.
“Coming to see another side to it is brilliant and gives me a better drive and motivation that you can’t really take your foot off the pedal, you need to keep going and driving on or someone else will take your place.
“Nothing has really surprised me so far, I had prepared myself quite well over the last few months because I knew I was going out on loan.
“Everyone was preparing me and saying, ‘it’s going to be a lot more physical and you’ll be coming out for a lot more crosses and kicking the ball a lot longer’.”