Cillian Sheridan has loved his time in Perth but is hungry for a chance at Celtic

CILLIAN SHERIDAN was offered a glimpse into the future at the beginning of the season and he was pretty impressed by what he saw.

Neil Lennon was the Celtic reserve team coach at that time and the striker says it was evident then that the former club captain had the qualities needed to make a successful transition into the managerial world. Now he is keen to link up with Lennon again next season, hopeful that both will be given the chance to help revive Celtic's fortunes.

"It was maybe only a month I had him but training was good and, maybe because he has just recently stopped playing, he understands what the players want and how to get the best reaction from them," said the player who burst onto the scene as a teenager and led the line in Champions League matches against the likes of Manchester United before injury and then managerial changes curtailed his involvement.

Since that early part of the season, Lennon has gone on to take the helm on a caretaker basis following the dismissal of manager Tony Mowbray, while Sheridan endured a tough loan spell at Plymouth Argyle before blossoming during another loan deal at St Johnstone. Since arriving at McDiarmid Park in January he has made 12 starts and netted six times, including a belter against Rangers which is sure to have caught the eye of everyone at Parkhead. He would now like to see both himself and Lennon given the opportunity to prove themselves at Celtic next season.

"The results have gone well for him as well so, yeah, I'd like him to get the job. He definitely knows what he is talking about and I think that shows so far," says the Irish striker.

The results of Sheridan's excursions have been favourable since his return to Scotland. "The season started off kind of up in the air with the new manager (Mowbray] coming in at Celtic. Then I went down to Plymouth and that didn't really work out, I didn't play much (he started just five games] and didn't score but then I came to St Johnstone and it seems to be ending on a high and I want next season to be even better.

"I don't know what will happen. I still have a year left on my contract at Celtic but it will depend which manager comes in and whether he brings his own players in or gives me a chance so I will just have to come back after the summer and see what is waiting for me."

Still only 21 and learning, success at the Old Firm side will depend on so many factors, not least his manager's ability to see beyond his 6ft 5in frame and realise he is not a targetman. A player with a nice touch, who thrives with the ball on the deck, he says the best thing about his stint in Perth has been working with a manager, Derek McInnes, who "probably understands my game better than I do myself".

"It has been good to get a taste of playing so many games and I love the feeling of coming in the day after a game and doing a cool-down instead of being one of the lads doing the full session because I wasn't involved the night before."

Playing in a St Johnstone team which cultivates many scoring opportunities in a match, he has grown in confidence as the chances have flown in. It is the polar opposite in so many ways to the plight at Celtic. While St Johnstone benefit from the sum of the parts being greater, Celtic have looked like a disjointed bunch at times. St Johnstone have earned praise for their resilience and steel, while Celtic seemed to have lost their mojo.

"St Johnstone have had a really good season and Celtic haven't. I don't know if it was good to escape that but it has been different not being under that same spotlight and being able to watch what's been happening at the club.

"A lot of people have asked me if I was there could I have made a difference and I would hope so but I don't know for sure, I could be doing worse. But I do think I can definitely go back there and fight for a place. I know I can have good games, I just have to do it regularly.

"That's what I'm working on, consistency. I know I could come in now and play well for two or three games in a row but then I'd maybe have a bad game and get dropped and then it's hard to get back in. As soon as you are not performing at one of the big teams there's always someone else there desperate to come in and take their chance.

"This is the third club I have been to on loan in a row, and it's not quite annoying yet, but it is enough. When I went to Motherwell Gordon Strachan said I should go and prove myself and come back. And Tony Mowbray didn't say he didn't want me, he just said it was my chance to go out and play and get more confidence and then come back. Some boys won't want to go on loan because they think it will be hard to get back, they are happy to stay and be back-up but it was an easy decision for me, I wanted to be playing and get as many games as I could."

And while he feels the loan spells are over, he is no more ready to watch from the sidelines. "If a new manager comes in and brings in his own strikers then I think that's when I would have to look at trying to find a new club. I want to play games, I want a full season to look back on and I don't think sitting on the bench or in the stand is any way to look at a season, just getting a few minutes here and there. This season has given me a taste of what it should be like."

It's not an ultimatum for a new boss, that's not the laid-back Sheridan's style. He doesn't whoop and holler and exchange high fives like others in boisterous dressing rooms. He is a quiet lad, but don't mistake his chilled-out nature for a don't-care attitude. This is a guy who says those Manchester United games passed him by because they were midweek fixtures and the club immediately had big domestic games to focus on at the weekend, suggesting he can survey the bigger picture. He just doesn't want to be doing it from the bench.