Nothing about this is normal
JOHNSTON RELISHING ROLE IN CELTS’ TREBLE SURGE
lose). Irrespective of what happens to me next. I’m not going to let that happen.
“It’s not all in my power, obviously. But I’m going to make sure we are going to be absolutely wellprepared to deliver on the day.
“There is a history with them and this football club and it has been mentioned to me numerous times. I was well aware of it anyway.
“And that is why you may all think I’m trying to deflect or whatever (questions about Spurs) but I can’t think anything beyond this because that is going to be the story.
“And all these other questions are going to be there after the game, and that is fine, but that is going to be the story come the final whistle.”
Defeat
Caley Thistle’s Scottish Cup win over Celtic in February
2000 cost Barnes his job. O’Neill suffered a cup defeat in the Highlands in 2003, just days after knocking Liverpool out of the UEFA Cup en route to Seville.
A 3-2 league defeat in Inverness in the third last game of the 2010/11 season cost Lennon the title and in the 2015 Scottish Cup semi-final it was Deila’s turn as John Hughes’ team turned them over 3-2 to deny the Norwegian a Treble.
Inverness boss Billy Dodds has told his Scottish Cup final stars: “If you don’t believe, don’t turn up.”
Dodds is looking to cause one of the biggest upsets of recent times tonight.
Dodds hopes to follow John Hughes, who led the club to Hampden glory in
2015. He said: “We know it is going to be difficult and we know the machine that we’re facing. But is it doable? Percentage-wise, it is not very high, but absolutely.” (above)
TWO recent entries stand alone at the bottom of Alistair Johnston’s Wikipedia page under ‘Honours’.
Scottish Premiership 2023 and Scottish League Cup 2023.
It’s a 10-week double that’s filled a space where nothing sat for the previous seven years of the Canada international’s football career.
But that could become a treble today with Johnston on the precipice of a record achievement and graduating from his crash course in Scottish football with distinction.
The 24-year-old certainly knows his history.
Victory over Inverness in today’s Scottish Cup final at Hampden would see the Hoops stand above all others in world football with an eighth treble.
And while fans of a certain age might think this is standard having completed four of those domestic clean sweeps in the last six years, Johnston is well aware it’s anything but ordinary.
The fact the man he calls captain, Callum McGregor, would be cleaning up for a fifth time — another world record — makes this all the more remarkable.
It’s no wonder the January signing from MLS side Montreal is pinching himself as he prepares to run out at the Scottish national stadium for the third time in only his 20th Celtic appearance.
“It’s massive. In my career leading up to here, I’d never won a trophy. Never really got close,” he said. “So to have already won two in five months is a great start and this is an opportunity to complete a treble.
“It can almost get lost just because of how many trebles this club has won in the past decade or so.
“But when you really look at it in the world of football, there are not a lot of players who have the opportunity to say they’ve won a treble.
“That’s not lost on us. We understand, especially us younger guys who’ve never done it before, how much that could possibly mean to us.
Great
“We’ve got great leadership in this team who have been there, done it and know what that means. It really puts you down in the history books and that’s something all of us are striving for.
“When you look at how decorated James Forrest and Callum McGregor are, it really puts things in perspective.
“You look at the world of football and the most decorated players and they’re right up there.
“So it goes to show — it almost does seem a little ordinary here but it’s not normal. We can’t take that for granted.
“This club is in a really good spell right now. We want to keep it up there but at the same time we understand what we’re doing isn’t ordinary.
“Callum and James are great role models. Not just because of how they come in and train.
“The pressure that comes with being a Celtic player, both on and off the pitch — you don’t live a normal life.
“Anywhere you go, you’re getting people coming up to you. Sometimes it’s the other side who are harassing you a little bit. “You can see why
a lot