Celtic’s Callum McGregor is on top of the world

Celtic's Callum McGregor is on hand to launch the club's new paving stones Christmas offer. Picture: SNS

The 2-1 win at Pittodrie on Sunday saw Celtic reclaim top spot in the table for the first time since August.

In recent weeks, Hamilton Accies, Dundee United and Inverness Caley have all found themselves in the championship slot without being able to hold on to it – but McGregor believes that the ante-post favourites will take some stopping now.

Since the 1-0 home defeat by Hamilton on October 24 (which prompted the 21-year-old to describe Celtic’s descent into sixth place as “embarrassing”), the champions are unbeaten in seven matches, winning six, scoring 19 goals and conceding only three.

Their resurgence was underlined when they came from behind to beat the Dons with a late winner from Virgil van Dijk, in spite of having had captain Scott Brown dismissed in the 80th minute.

Most sides would have settled for a draw in those circumstances but McGregor and his team-mates were determined to return to the summit.

“It’s a good feeling,” he said. “The game on Sunday was excellent, especially with the way we won it.

“We’re delighted to be top of the table and we hope we can stay there. It’s not been easy. We had the change of manager and the time it takes to settle in. It’s taken us a bit of time to get back but we got there in the end. Now we just need to keep up the performances and focus on staying there.

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“Expectations at Celtic are massive. You have to win every game but you need to do it the right way. The stats are coming together now. We’ve won our last five domestic games and the team is starting to gel. Players are coming back from injuries and we are on a good run.

“Hopefully, that can continue after the international break. This could be the end of the settling-in period. Everyone knows what the manager wants from the players and we are moving in the right direction.”

The way that the players and management reacted to van Dijk’s goal and the euphoria evident at time up would not have been out of place following a cup final victory but, as far as McGregor is concerned, this was a significant result.

He said: “It just showed what [returning to the top] meant to us. There was a lot of passion in the celebrations. It was great to be a part of it and take it in.

“It was excellent in the dressing room afterwards as well. The gaffer was a bit animated, wasn’t he? He was just delighted: he was buzzing in the changing room

“It was a mixture of everything, really. It was going top of the league, winning the game after going down to ten men and the atmosphere was great. There was a bit of relief that we got there, too. Emotions were running high. It’s a passionate game and that’s why we love it. But it goes back to keeping focused on staying there.”

Deila’s excitement at the climax of Sunday’s game was such that he described his feelings as “orgasmic” in the post-match interview. But McGregor wouldn’t go quite that far. “It’s a strange word to use,” he said, “but we did enjoy it.”

McGregor is certainly enjoying leading from the front a good deal more than the days when Celtic were languishing in mid-table, although he regrets his description of that period.

“Embarrassing is a strong word and maybe it wasn’t the right one to use: there is nothing embarrassing about playing for a club like Celtic,” he said. “I was a bit annoyed with the way the results were going. The performances were criticised but we knew, as a team, we had to put it right.”

Pundits have theorised that, as the only club likely to win it, Celtic’s players are not fired up for this campaign but McGregor argues that he – along with Craig Gordon, John Guidetti, Roger Denayer, Aleksandr Tonev, Stefan Scepovic and Wakaso Mubarak – is desperate to win his first championship medal.

He said: “It would be a new experience for me and for a lot of the new boys. I’ve done it with the youths before but to do it with the first team would be unbelievable.”

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