Solitary blip at Inverness still irks Celtic
Assistant manager Davies explains that drive for perfection ensures leaders will never be fully content
BRENDAN RODGERS and Chris Davies don’t strike you as two men with an awful lot to worry about at the moment.
Twenty-five points clear in the league, domestically unbeaten, a Betfred Cup safely tucked away, and Moussa Dembele and Craig Gordon still in green after days of transfer speculation should be enough to ensure the lightest of moods around a buoyant Lennoxtown for the Celtic management team.
You could also throw a record run into the mix as well to put a smile across their faces.
But the pair, relentless in their pursuit of excellence – or perfection – can still find improvement even in the smallest of slip ups. Domestically Celtic have won all but one of their matches, that single blip coming in a 2-2 draw away to Inverness on a blustery Sunday in September.
While it is unlikely Rodgers or Davies will be pouring over the ins and outs of that stalemate come May as the reason a campaign’s worth of hard work was wiped out, it doesn’t stop the latter from agonising about what is the closest thing to a foot wrong the runaway Ladbrokes Premiership leaders have put all season.
“It does annoy you,” said the Celtic assistant manager. “After we have conceded goals and even when we concede chances. It does bug you. Even going back a few years now, certain goals still irk you. You keep playing them over in your head. But they can make you better.
“You analyse them so it doesn’t happen again. Inverness is still frustrating as there is no way we should have drawn that game.
“The motivation aspect is pretty high. Having such a good group of senior pros and a strong captain in the dressing room really helps. Scott Brown really leads from within.
“The manager sets the demand every day but you have Scott, Craig [Gordon], Kolo Toure and Mikael Lustig.
“They are real winners who are always up for it no matter where it is. That brings the young players on as well.
“The motivation is still there to go out and win, and be ruthless.”
Tomorrow’s trip to Perth represents Celtic’s 24th Premiership game of the season and, given how the previous 23 have gone, one would say it’s unlikely their first speed bump in a one-man sprint to the title will be hit tomorrow.
However, with St Johnstone at McDiarmid Park, you just never know.
The Glasgow club won 4-2 on their last visit there but it was only a Ryan Christie goal deep into injury time that put the result beyond any real doubt.
There is also a question mark still hanging over the fitness of Dembele, Leigh Griffiths, Stuart Armstrong, Tom Rogic and Eboue Kouassi. Still, whispers of an “invincible” domestic season continue to echo throughout Scottish football around this group of players, but Davies insists they are focused on the task it at hand, despite what could be.
“If it is a consequence of doing really good work then so be it,” he said. “It is nothing that we talk about or focus on, it is all about the next game. Win the next game, perform in the next game, keep doing that relentlessly.”
Meanwhile, Joe Shaughnessy is looking to celebrate his new St Johnstone deal by bringing hopes of that unbeaten season to a halt. The former Aberdeen defender, who has penned a two-year contract at McDiarmid Park, said: “Celtic are a much different team to last season and Brendan Rodgers has given them a lot of confidence. But we always make it hard for teams here.
“You could probably make a team out of their subs who could challenge for the top six – that shows how strong they are. But no team is invincible so we’ll give it our best shot.”