We’re in real title dogfight but I’ve got a Salem’s lot on my mind to keep me occupied
Walks with labrador clear Celtic star AJ’s head as he targets second league title
THE first rule of fight club is: You do not talk about fight club.
And now that he’s been roped into the middle of the Glasgow version, Alistair Johnston is learning to come up with some coping devices of his own.
Stay off social media, at all costs. There’s little or nothing to be gained from disappearing down that rabbit hole at a time when the madness is being cranked up to 11 all around.
And if there’s a need to find something else to occupy the mind after training then find a new hobby to while away the rest of the day.
For Johnston, that hobby comes in the shape of his doting black Labrador Salem.
Long walks in the country air are what the Canadian relies upon to escape from the cauldron bubbling up on his doorstep.
And he’ll have been for a few of them over the last couple of days, ever since Celtic’s spell was broken at Tynecastle amid heated accusations of some sorcery going on in the VAR bunker of Clydesdale House.
Johnston’s manager may have been seduced into believing that black magic was to blame for his side’s 2-0 defeat.
But while Brendan Rodgers may get his fingers burned on Hampden’s sixth floor for promoting the idea that some sort of hocus pocus was to blame for this latest slip-up, Johnston is trying his best to block out the building noise.
“Me? I don’t find it difficult,” the full-back said when asked how it feels to be dragged into the hysteria surrounding an Old Firm title battle.
“If you are on the social media platforms you will maybe get a bit of it – but a lot of us don’t really read that stuff. You just keep doing what you do in your normal life.
“All of us have hobbies outside of football so we just stick to that.
“I have a dog – a black Lab called Salem – so I walk the dog and do things like that. The days pass and you can just focus on other things and not get too wound up about a title race.”
And yet, even though he’s a relative newcomer to this part of the world, Johnston is well aware of how it works here, as well as the inherent dangers which come with all of its obvious distractions.
At the age of 25 – and with only 14 months’ experience of Scottish football’s old curiosity shop under his belt – he can hardly be considered as one of the veterans inside the club’s Lennoxtown HQ.
But Johnston has an old head on young shoulders regardless. And he’s using it to help protect some of the most recent arrivals from the storm which is sweeping in from the Campsie Hills outside.
With a nod of the head he said:
A lot of us don’t really read that stuff. You keep to a normal life alistair johnston ON BLOCKING SOCIAL MEDIA
“It is not always easy, especially for the new guys. They maybe haven’t felt this kind of pressure before and scrutiny from living in a city that is this football mad.
“The older guys are here for them. We just kind of block out the noise.”
Pointing a finger towards the first-team dressing room, he continued: “All that really matters is what is in that room over there and at the end of the day what is in that room is what is going to take us to the title or not.
“It is down to us, it is in our control. There is nothing more to add.”
And yet the strength of Celtic’s unity is being tested nonetheless.
Johnston returned to action at Motherwell 10 days ago after recovering from a facial fracture and played a huge part in a second-half recovery mission, setting up Adam Idah’s crucial injury-time goal. He supplied even more chances as Celtic followed that dramatic late win up with a seven-goal trouncing of Dundee.
But Sunday’s loss to Hearts has raised more questions about the spirit inside Celtic’s camp as the champions.
Former Rangers boss Graeme Souness claimed his old rivals may not have the “bollocks” to get across the line in first place.
Johnston won’t be buying into any of that either.
He said: “Interesting. I haven’t heard the disjointed part. But the locker room is really together again.
“We have great leaders. We have guys like Callum McGregor, Joe Hart and James Forrest who have played in difficult run-ins and lifted all kinds of trophies. There are quite a few guys in that locker room who won it last year and who understand what it takes to win. So I think there is that confidence and that selfbelief for sure.
“With it being Joe’s last season we want to send him off right. So there are things like that.
“The confidence is definitely there, the togetherness is there, I haven’t really noticed any difference from last year when I came in to this year. “There is still a really good group of guys who come in here and work hard every day and who fight for each other. I am really excited for these next few months, it is a chance to play our football. If we do that, anything is possible.”