Treble is spur for a dream season

HAMPDEN goal hero Scott Sinclair believes completing the Treble will be the perfect way to cap off his dream debut season at Celtic.

The Hoops wideman tucked away a second-half spot-kick to help his team see off Rangers 2-0 in the semi-finals of the William Hill Scottish Cup.

That Hampden triumph means the Parkhead outfit are now just one win away from wrapping up a domestic clean sweep for the first time since 2001.

Sinclair admits that kind of feat was the furthest thing from his mind when Brendan Rodgers persuaded him to make his move to Glasgow last summer.

The former Chelsea kid was in danger of becoming a forgotten man after moves to Manchester City and Aston Villa turned sour.

But the 28-year-old is now a leading candidate to be crowned Scotland’s Player of the Year after a 24-goal campaign and he confessed he is loving every minute of Celtic’s trophy chase.

Sinclair said: “It would mean the world to us all if we could win the Treble but there’s still a long way to go before the final.

“I’ve been asked a few times if I could ever have envisioned my move up to Glasgow going so well and the answer is ‘no’. It’s gone better.

“The main thing for me was to come up here and start enjoying football again and to play every week.

“I have a manager who believes in me now, so I couldn’t ask for more.”

Celtic were always in control as they lined up against Pedro Caixinha’s Gers side but only had Callum McGregor’s 11th-minute opener to show for their first-half dominance.

But Sinclair made sure of the win with his penalty after James Tavernier hauled down Leigh Griffiths six minutes into the second period.

Sinclair said: “We controlled the game from start to finish and it was a great performance.

“It’s always nice to get the second goal. If it stayed at 1-0 maybe we’d have been on the back foot a bit more.

“Their keeper got a hand to my penalty but it was never in doubt.

“It’s always a nice feeling to be in a final. We’ve still got five games to play in the league and we want to make sure we do a job in that.”

WHEN Scott Sinclair converted Celtic’s second half penalty, Brendan Rodgers turned his back on the celebrations, sought out a familiar face in the crowd and beamed quietly, one fist half-raised.

With 40 minutes still to play, Rodgers could have taken a seat in the stand with a glass of champagne to enjoy the fruits of his labour. Even at that stage his work was done and then some.

Ruthless, aggressive, relentless, a goal in each half from Callum McGregor and Sinclair didn’t just tee up Celtic’s first Treble since 2001, but one which put down the marker.

In an opening period that brought just one goal but utterly took the wind out of Rangers, Celtic’s hunger and drive was evident from the first whistle.

It had been 92 years since Celtic beat Rangers i n a Scottish Cup semi-final but the odd revelation post-match from Rangers boss Pedro Caixinha that he changed his team-talk because his players looked nervous i n the warm-up confirmed just how much of a swagger Celtic brought to the game.

The Ibrox side looked beaten before a ball was kicked. There was a modicum of a fightback in the latter stages of this contest with Kenny Miller attempting to drag them into the tie but by then the game was long gone as a contest.

The opening period was essentially a procession for Celtic whose energy and movement suggested an extra man at times.

The only aberration from that came three minutes before the break when Miller lobbed an effort from distance over the bar, the only time in that first 45 minutes that Rangers managed to escape the clutched of a Celtic side who kept a firm grip of the game.

With a back three protected by Scott Brown — imperious throughout the 90 minutes, Stuart Armstrong and McGregor had free licence to dominate the central pastures.

Andy Halliday’s lunge on Patrick Roberts drew the first booking of the game in just three minutes, with the player fortunate that it wasn’t a red. It was a pattern that would be ubiquitous throughout the encounter.

Youngster Myles Beerman took a pop at the on-loan City winger too, an infringement that earned him a caution that could have proved costly when he took a nip at the player again just minutes later.

He escaped further punishment but Roberts’ bruises this morning will be indicative of the influence he exerted on the affair, running Brown close for the man of the match award.

YET, if there was an early suspicion that Halliday’s crunch on Roberts would set the tone for an afternoon in which Rangers set out to get in the faces of Celtic, it simply didn’t materialise.

That perhaps owed much to the pace of the game set by Rodgers’ side or of Rangers’ psychological frailties in squaring up to a side who have dominated the five meetings between them this season.

It essentially said much about the afternoon and the dominancy of Celtic that the biggest cheer to emerge from the Rangers end came when Moussa Dembele pulled up midway through the opening period with a hamstring strain.

The French striker had caused havoc before his departure with the Ibrox defence spooked whenever he ran at them.

Dembele’s hand i n the opener was show of strength and technique and he brought down a long ball from Mikael Lustig on the edge of the box before sliding it into the path of McGregor.

Free from anyone tracking him, McGregor’s finish was Celtic’s afternoon in microcosm; unflustered, composed, confident.

The midfielder picked his spot and sidefooted the ball with pace from the edge of the box into the bottom corner.

Celtic had posted notice immediately prior to the goal of their threat when Armstrong had come close with a dipping effort that curled just wide of the post, and the pace with which Celtic started the game rarely dipped.

If there was a criticism of Celtic in that opening period it was that they didn’t have further goals to show for the way i n which they had controlled the game.

There was an inevitability about the changes rung at the interval from Rangers with Halliday and the relatively anonymous Joe Garner hooked, but the players had barely warmed up for the second period when the game was unequivocally put of Rangers’ reach.

GRIFFITHS did well to chase a ball he looked second favourite to get and Wes Foderingham dithered too long before coming off his line.

It left James Tavernier up against Griffiths and his sliding challenge took out the striker.

From the subsequent penalty Sinclair sunk, with some luck, his 24th goal of the season to essentially put Celtic into the final of the tournament.

Foderingham got a hand to the kick to palm it off the inside