Wee Taylor left me with Greg on my face but I can have the last laugh now
O’DONNELL AIMS TO GET EVEN
Stephen O’Donnell jokes that Greg Taylor made him look “a d***” when they last met.
He’d love to pile the pain on his pal when the Killie old boys clash today at Parkhead.
The two Scotland fullbacks had contrasting Euro fortunes in midweek.
O’Donnell opened his Motherwell account in a 5-1 win over Glentoran a day after Taylor’s Celtic crashed out of the Champions League to Ferencvaros.
The pair spent two years together at Rugby Park before Taylor’s £ 2.2million move to the champions.
They went head to head in February when the Hoops defender came out on top in a 3-1 victory.
O’Donnell returns to the east end of Glasgow this afternoon with Neil Lennon’s men still hurting from their 2-1 loss to the Hungarians that will see them join the Steelmen in tomorrow’s Europa League draw.
Whi le mos t of the Motherwell players will be keen to see if David Turnbull makes a quickfire debut after his move from Fir Park, O’Donnell has one eye on another familiar face.
The 28- year- old – who netted a scorching longrange strike on Thursday – said of his showdown with his pal: “I would love to put one over on Greg!
“He’s put a few over on me. The last game we played the wee s*** tripped me up and off he went, crossed one in and I was left looking like a d*** up the pitch.
“Seriously, Greg has done great at Celtic and I’m delighted for him.
“I get on well with him, he’s a great boy, and I wish him the best apart from when he’s playing my side.
“He’s assured, as you need to be at Celtic.
“You can be quickly shot down there just like it is with the media when you go away with Scotland.
“He’s got the personality to cope with that. It seems he’s doing fine tome. I watched him in the 5-1 Hamilton Accies game where he got two assists and played brilliantly.
“You’d probably say in the past he was better defensively and offensively he needed some work.
“It shows you he’s come on in leaps and bounds at Celtic and I hope it continues.
“It’s nice for the full-backs to chip in with goals every now and again and I joined him there on Thursday night!
“They don’t come around too often but I’ve scored a few nice ones. It was maybe one of the more important goals but I scored a couple of nice ones with Par tick Thistle early on and a couple when I was down at Luton.”
Taylor was signed on transfer deadline day last season and had to wait for a chance to make the left-back spot his own with Bol i Bol ingol i a lso signed following Kieran Tierney’s departure for Arsenal.
O’Donnell reckons ex-Well starlet Turnbull can follow his example.
He said: “I suppose Greg could have been in possession of the jersey if the deal had gone through a wee bit earlier.
“But Bol ingoli played against Rangers and did well. Greg was patient, took his chance and he deserves to be where he is.
“With David, there’s a lot of competition in the middle of the park at Celtic, a lot of seasoned pros.
“You see it with Ryan Christie and Olivier Ntcham but I’ve only been in the building a short space of time and I saw the quality David has. I wish him all the best.
“In the couple of games I’ve played with him, you can see he has bags of quality.
“I just hope he gets the opportunity to show that at Celtic and, if he does, I’m sure he’ll do great.”
Motherwell earned their first victory of the season against the Glens but are still winless domestically and O’Donnell is wary of a
Hoops backlash. He said: “Celtic have a squad full of quality and a great management staff so I am sure they will bounce back.
“It’s not easy playing against teams when you’re the favourites especially as the fans were not there
– it was tougher for them.
“I found that out last year when Killie lost to Connah’s Quay in an Europa League qualifier– you are on a hiding to nothing.
“We just need to make sure we are at it and then hopefully we will get a result at Parkhead.
“I’ve not played against the top two with Well yet so I don’t quite know how the manager is going to set up.”