Celtic are ready to gamble on Aiden McGeady

Published on Friday 18 December 2009 23:25

AIDEN McGEADY picked up an award yesterday for scoring his club's 1,000th goal in the Scottish Premier Leaguesince its inception in 1998, his strike against Motherwell last weekend achieving the landmark and helping Celtic to a crucial three points in their 3-2 win.

However, Celtic could have good reason to drop him today – but they will resist any temptation to leave him out of their SPL fixture against Hearts.

The Republic of Ireland winger, who usually faces a hostile reception from the Hearts supporters, is currently just one booking away from incurring a suspension. If he is booked tomorrow, he would serve it by sitting out the Old Firm showdown at Celtic Park on 3 January.

But Celtic first team coach Peter Grant has insisted there is no prospect of manager Tony Mowbray resting McGeady in order to ensure he is available to face Rangers. Instead, the 23-year-old will be advised to avoid any show of dissent to referee Willie Collum.

"Some of Aiden's bookings this season have been a little bit soft, to say the least," said Grant. "But sometimes he will be booked for mouthing off. The only thing we can say to him is 'don't go bickering with the referee if anything happens'.

"The other side of things, you can't do much about. As long as it's not a booking for anything silly, then we will have no problems with that. Aiden probably gets fouled more than any other player in Scotland.

"We won't think about leaving him out at all, because you want to well in every game and Hearts is as important as Rangers to us at the moment. So we won't be resting any players for this.

"Yes, we would be disappointed if Aiden was not available for the Rangers game, but Hearts is the most important right now. We want to get three points at Tynecastle, keep on winning to ensure we are on the tails of Rangers going into the Old Firm game, hopefully with all of our players available.

"So I don't think Aiden can be going into this game worried about the situation. Matchwinners always have a wee edge to their game and he has got that. He has been fantastic for us and knows his ability can do the talking."

McGeady missed Thursday's night's match in the Europa League against Rapid Vienna, which Grant admitted sent a chill down his spine. As he watched Celtic fall 3-0 behind after just 19 minutes of their final Europa League fixture, he feared he was about suffer the same kind of humiliation as a coach with the club as he had as a player.

Back in October 1991, Grant was part of the Celtic side under Liam Brady's management who were crushed 5-1 in Switzerland by Neuchatel Xamax in the first leg of a Uefa Cup second round tie. Until Gordon Strachan's 5-0 meltdown against Artmedia Bratislava in 2006, it stood as Celtic's heaviest European defeat.

It was a result which embodied the problems Celtic suffered in the early 1990s, a 1-0 win in the second leg in Glasgow doing little to ease the sense of embarrassment.

So Celtic's feisty comeback to draw 3-3 with Rapid Vienna and at least end this season's European campaign on something of a positive note came as a considerable relief to Grant.

"During that first 20 minutes, I was just thinking 'oh dear, please don't let it be another Neuchatel'. I played in that game and all I could think of was that it couldn't be as bad as that again.

"I still think about that night now, it will never leave me. We were 3-0 down at half-time and never really recovered. The Egyptian striker Hossam Hassan scored four of Neuchatel's goals and I'll never forget his name.

"Thankfully, the team defrosted after the first 20 minutes in Vienna. I feared the worst when we went 3-0 behind but the players deserve credit for their response. Defensively, we knew we were poor in the first half and had to do better. We did and, with the chances we went on to create, we could even have ended up winning the game."

With Celtic eliminated from the Europa League before kick-off in Vienna, defeat would not have been a calamity. Grant, however, was keen to ensure the momentum created in winning their four previous games was not seriously stalled, despite the number of changes manager Tony Mowbray made to the starting line-up.

"People would not have been happy if we had gone out there and lost by four or five goals," he said. "But it was the right decision to change the team and I would still be saying that even if we had lost the game.

"We were still representing this club out there and there is always something at stake for Celtic. We wanted to keep it going over there.

"We also had to try and get some players minutes on the pitch. They have been doing exceptionally well in the reserves and in training, but when are we going to play them? If we make changes in the league games, people will say 'why did you do that?'.

"The circumstances on Thursday dictated we could afford to make changes and, in many respects, it worked out better for us. Marc-Antoine Fortune got another two goals, Stephen McManus and Glenn Loovens got another game together at the back, Mark Wilson and Paul Caddis got a game and both Niall McGinn and Paul McGowan came through it with flying colours. These players have the right to feel a bit of pride about it."

Celtic's line-up will have a more familiar look when they face Hearts at Tynecastle tomorrow, a venue with which Grant is eagerly anticipating renewing his relationship.

"I never had an easy game at Tynecastle as a player," he added. "The atmosphere was always good and I think it's even better now than it was when I played."v