‘BIG TEAM, BIG CHARACTERS’

Forrest says Celtic proved they know what it’s all about after a difficult month with win over Rangers

CELTIC winger James Forrest believes that Celtic showed their character as they emerged from a difficult month to seal a dominant win over Steven Gerarrd’s Rangers.

The loss of striker Moussa Dembele just hours before Friday night’s transfer window closed after the Frenchman took to social media to vent his frustrations brought down the

curtain on what was a tumultuous few weeks. But Forrest believes that the nature of the win over Rangers underlined Celtic’s dominance.

“I think we showed what we are – a big team with big characters,” he said. “We knew what we needed to do and that was go out and put in a good performance and win the game. That’s what we done.

“We have so many match winners here. We have players who know what it means to go out and play in the fixture and know what is required to get the result.

“I think we showed our character and out togetherness out there.”

Gerrard was irked at what he felt was a foul on Ryan Jack in the build-up to the goal but Forrest was unperturbed.

“I think Tom [Rogic] was just outside out box when it happened,” he said. “I don’t think it was a foul. It would have been a soft one. But in any case we still had a load of work to do.

“We had the entire length of the park to get up. I also think that we could have scored a lot more than just one on the day. We hit the post a couple of times and the crossbar and on another day they would have gone in. I don’t think we won because of one decision.”

Forrest himself clipped the bar in the opening period before then squaring for Ntcham to open the scoring just after the hour mark.

And the Scotland internationalist revealed that he thought about going for it himself after taking the ball from Edouard.

“I thought about taking the shot myself but when I looked up I could see Ollie coming in and I just thought he would definitely score if the pass was right,” he said. “I was delighted to see it going in.

“The first half I just tried an effort from the edge of the box when the ball came out to me. I actually thought at the last minute it might dip and go in – on another day it might have.”