Snoddy cap bid
James excited to finally face sibling
ROBERT SNODGRASS has opened the door to a shock Scotland return – and wants Scott Brown to join him. The West Ham attacker retired from international football in October to give younger players the chance to flourish. Now Snodgrass, 32, who has won 28 caps and scored seven goals for Scotland admits he’d jump at the chance of a recall from Steve Clarke. He
CELTIC chief executive Peter Lawwell has already stated he’s hoping to soon get his eyes on a 2020/21 Premiership fixture list.
When that schedule of games is finally released, James Forrest will be having a close look too.
Old Firm matches against Rangers will naturally be noted by fans. So will trips to places such as Pittodrie and Tannadice.
But Forrest will be taking extra time to try and spot the arrangements for the games against Livingston.
As a top-team star for over a decade, the attacker has faced countless rivals down the years.
However, in all of that time, he’s never faced his brother Alan.
That though, is set to change this term with Forrest’s younger sibling having signed a deal in the summer to leave Ayr, after lengthy service at Somerset Park, to join Gary Holt’s Lions. The brothers have watched cup draws for years thinking they might get to face off but now it’s likely to happen in the top flight.
And the Celtic ace admits it’ll be a fascinating scenario.
James said: “Alan played with Ayr since he was 16. That’s seven years. Every single year and every cup competition, you are always thinking about maybe being drawn against him.
“It’s been close sometimes. Maybe they have been in the quarter-finals a couple of times and have either landed Rangers or Aberdeen instead of Celtic but we’ve always been looking for it.
“Obviously, next season it is going to happen. It’ll be strange and it’ll be a different experience but it’s something I’ll look forward to happening.
“Greg [Taylor] had it last season. He played and then his brother came on later in the game.
“I remember him saying that his family and everyone around them was buzzing. It doesn’t happen all that often, so you can understand the family buzzing with the two of them playing together.
“There is five years a difference between us. To be fair, when we were younger, he’d join in with us but never professionally has it happened. It’s a positive and something to enjoy.”
Forrest has started the build-up to the new campaign this week as Celtic begin working in small groups again at Lennoxtown.
With nine titles and 19 medals on his CV, the 28-year-old is an integral part of Neil Lennon’s set-up and one of the homegrown stars who has helped push the club’s recent dominance.
Forrest has compatriots such as Scott Brown, Callum McGregor, Ryan Christie and Leigh Griffiths to provide the core of the squad and he enjoys the fact that Scottish talent plays a big role at the club.
The attacker pinpointed Brown’s incredible influence around the entire group in terms of integrating foreign stars and keeping standards high as key to the success of the club.
Forrest said: “It’s good to have the Scottish boys playing for Celtic with a lot of them successful and able to take that on to the national team.
“You need to always be better again every day. That has shown over the past few years. They are all great players and everyone talks about Broony in that regard. And rightly so.
“If you ask anyone who has played alongside him or been around him, they will say the same thing about his influence. The amount Broony does for everyone as well as keeping his own game up is something you can not buy.”
JACK HENDRY is closing in on his comeback from a serious knee injury after stepping up his training regime.
The Celtic defender joined Melbourne City in Australia in January but was injured in only his second match. On social media, he said: “Knee feeling strong.”