Celtic's Alistair Johnston glad his mum did not witness Ibrox 'toxicity' as he opens up on Old Firm debut

Ice-hockey was Alistair Johnston’s first love but if the relationship fizzled out, the formative imprint left its mark.

It was evident when the Canadanian full-back went steaming into John Lundstram on Monday afternoon as he introduced himself to the “toxicity” of the Glasgow derby and, judging from Johnston’s loquacious remarks, Celtic fans can expect to see a little more of the physicality he grew up with.

“Ice hockey is quite rough, quite physical,” said Johnston. “We’re just raised on it from such a young age over there, full body contact.

“It’s funny, coaches over there will get mad at you if you don’t hit a guy. If you come off your shift on the ice – you’re on there for 45 seconds – and oftentimes if the guy drops the puck in and you don’t hit him after, the coach will be like ‘what are you doin? You’ve got to make him feel that!’

Rangers' John Lundstram goes down injured after a challenge from Celtic debutant Alistair Johnston during the 2-2 draw at Ibrox. (Photo by Craig Williamson / SNS Group)

“It’s hilarious because there’s no other sport, or facet of life, where you’re allowed to do that, to try and take a guy’s head off. I’ve been raised on that, from about six or seven years old they’re telling you to do that. It comes as such second nature now.

“As I moved on into my teenage years, they make you pick a sport to play the full year round, I chose the football path. So, I do miss that in some ways, you wonder ‘how can I bring that into my football?’ It’s something that’s always gone hand in hand, even subconsciously it’s just like ‘I love to get physical, to go up and win it, win a challenge.’”

Johnston emerged from his Celtic debut having made a robust impression on the affair with the 24-year-old at ease with the volatile nature of his inauguration. It can be unforgiving environment to make a debut in, as previous players have found to their cost.

“You can learn very quickly if you’re going to sink or swim,” he said. “For me, it was nice that, even though we didn’t win, I still came out of there thinking: ‘OK, I’ve made my Celtic debut. I felt like I belonged.’ Just getting that one out of the way means that I can kind of feel that I’m here.

“I knew quite a bit about this match-up going into it. I also showed my missus the one we played at home last year, Cal [McGregor] had the mask on and they won 3-0. I showed her the light show, You’ll Never Walk Alone and all of that. She was sitting there going: ‘This is unbelievable!’

“It’s funny, my Mum was saying she wished she could have been there. I was like: “You know what, I’m not sure you’d want to have been at that one. I’m not sure I would let you go to that one. Maybe the next one at home!

“A lot of us have gotten very good at using that toxicity I guess you could say, to our benefit. I like that, it fuels you, it gets you up for the game.

“When they went up 2-1 you could see their fans giving it back to ours. But then with the equaliser we got one back there.”

Alistair Johnston was speaking to promote the new 2022/23 SPFL Match Attax collection. Follow Topps Match Attax social channels to see SPFL players doing challenges and to find out more about the new collection.