Goncalves planning to spoil Celts party again
ISMA GONCALVES has previous experience when it comes to preventing Celtic getting their hands on a major trophy. When he made his St Mirren debut, on loan from Rio Ave in January 2013, the Portuguese striker helped shoot down Neil Lennon’s tournament favourites in a shock 3-2 League Cup semi-final victory at Hampden.
Famously, the night before the match, Goncalves was closely ‘man-marked’ by Austin MacPhee, then a young coach to Buddies boss Danny Lennon.
MacPhee took the forward, who had a reputation for living life to the full, to his parents’ silver wedding anniversary in Glasgow to ensure he did not go astray elsewhere.
The unusual approach paid off as a fresh Goncalves scored on the day Celtic’s Treble dreams were reduced to dust.
Four years later, Goncalves has been reunited with MacPhee, currently No2 to Ian Cathro at Hearts
A more mature 25, he will not be needing the close attentions of his coach now he has settled down with partner Lucia and is a devoted dad to their baby boy Santiago.
But Goncalves still hopes to roll back the years if events conspire to give Celtic the chance to clinch the Premiership title at Tynecastle on Sunday.
Should Aberdeen not already have handed the title to Celtic tomorrow night by losing at Dens Park, a victory for Brendan Rodgers’ side in Gorgie would officially clinch six-in-a-row for the Parkhead club.
But Goncalves is hoping to keep silverware out of Celtic’s clutches once more, albeit it would only be on a temporary basis this time given Celtic’s huge lead at the top of the table.
‘We don’t want Celtic to have a party in our home,’ said the man who signed from Cypriot side Anorthosis Famagusta for £170,000 in January.
‘But we stopped Celtic winning a trophy in my first ever game in Scotland — and hopefully we can do it again. That would be nice.
‘That was an amazing day. We worked a lot on Celtic in training the week before the game and made it difficult for them. We were the underdogs but it just shows it’s not impossible to beat Celtic.
‘We’ve prepared well at Hearts and everything we’ve done in training is about how we can stop Celtic and how we can beat them. Training has been great. Hopefully it shows out on the pitch.
‘It’s important to score the first goal, like in 2013, because that makes it easier for us.
‘A goal of a start would be amazing. But even if we go 1-0 down it’s not finished as when Celtic score a goal they relax a bit and that would give us chances.’
Celtic have yet to taste defeat domestically this season. But Goncalves believes that can change if Hearts reprise the high of the erratic Cathro era so far — a 4-1 thumping of Mark Warburton’s Rangers at Tynecastle on February 1.
‘Yes, a repeat would be nice and we have been working hard on that in training,’ he said. ‘I hope it’s going to work out for us.
‘Of course I am impressed by Celtic’s unbeaten run but we are also a good team. We showed it against Rangers that night.
‘When we are on our day we can achieve amazing things. We can beat Celtic.’
Under Cathro, Hearts have won just five times in 17 games and St Johnstone have leapfrogged them into fourth place.
But Goncalves believes more consistency in performance can help secure a place in the Europa League next season.
‘Europe is still a possibility,’ he said. ‘We still have to play St Johnstone home and away. There are nine games, so I think we can make it. That’s certainly our target.
‘Also, if Celtic, Aberdeen or Rangers win the Scottish Cup then fourth place gets into Europe, so we can make it happen.
‘The team have been getting used to the new players who came here in January and we have been getting better.
‘We are a good team, we have good players and we feel we can make amazing things happen. Now we have to show it.
‘But it’s important the fans remain with us. We need them to push us on and lift us up. That will be important on Sunday.’
Isma Goncalves was speaking at the launch of the SPFL Trust Trusted Trophy tour, which sees all five national trophies — the Ladbrokes Premiership, Championship, League One and League Two and Betfred Cup — taken to Scotland’s clubs, shining a light on the valuable local community work done across the country.