DOC: I’M NOT SHOCKED BY FLYING RYAN
TONY DOCHERTY feels Ryan Christie is getting his rewards because he is the “hardest-working player” in Scotland.
The Celtic attacker took his tally for the season to 17 with his midweek strike against Hearts and the Aberdeen assistant manager knows he will be a major threat to his team at Parkhead today.
Docherty is delighted to see Christie do so well after dazzling on loan at Pittodrie when it looked like his Celtic dream was starting to fade.
“Having worked with him on a day-to-day basis for 18 months I would say he is the hardest-working player in Scotland,” he said.
“That’s something he doesn’t get the credit for as his goal against Hearts was outstanding. He doesn’t even take a back lift as it was just one step and it was fired into the corner. But I’ve see that so often for myself.
“I’ve seen on the training field how good a player Ryan is technically but what others don’t see is his work ethic. Everything he did here he did to 100 per cent.
“He is now getting the rewards for that so I’m not surprised how well he’s done. He’s a great
BY SCOTT BURNS kid but we are now going into a game where we need to find a way to stop him being as good as he showed again in the win at Tynecastle.”
Celtic will be confident of extending their winning run as they had an easy 4-0 victory at Pittodrie in November.
Docherty’s hoping Aberdeen are a different side today and believes their recent comeback against Rangers will give them confidence.
He said: “That loss to Celtic was hard to take as we had just come off the back of a strong win at Motherwell and played the same team.
“I was at the Hearts match in midweek and that was similar in many ways but Celtic were more clinical against us.
“They scored with their first three chances at Pittodrie and that can really affect players on the day.
“It’s difficult to come back from that but this group of players have done that recently against Rangers.
“We didn’t fold, we made sure we looked them in the eye, made sure we got the next goal and could have gone on to win the match.”