Forrest eyes winning run to help fill empty seats

James Forrest believes Celtic have to maintain their winning run to attract their stay-away fans back to Parkhead.

Crowds all over Scotland have dwindled in recent seasons and the 60,000-capacity Celtic Park was around a third empty for Wednesday night’s 2-1 win over Dunfermline which took Celtic to within seven points of SPL leaders Rangers.

After a poor start to the season Neil Lennon’s side have now won four in a row and Forrest, at the club’s Lennoxtown training ground to help promote ticket sales for the home game against St Mirren tomorrow, is sure that extending that run will see the fans flocking back – even though those who were there on Wednesday angered Lennon for showing their displeasure as Celtic hung on nervously in the closing stages.

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“I think the more wins we get, the more they will come back,” said the 20-year-old, who scored the second goal to take his tally for the season to seven. “The fans were really good and backed us the full game, maybe getting a wee bit nervous in the last ten minutes. We obviously missed a few chances which doesn’t help and maybe that rubbed off on the fans a wee bit.

“We made it tougher than we should have. We could have scored about eight goals in the first half but we gave them a lifeline in the last ten minutes But that’s four wins in a row and we just have to take the positives out of the game and cut out the late slackness. We have narrowed the gap a wee bit and we want to continue that on Saturday. But we know St Mirren will come and have a good go at us and it will be a really hard game. The aim is not to drop any points until we play Rangers and it starts with Saturday.”

Forrest has been hailed by Lennon as Celtic’s most consistent performer this season. The Scotland international puts his good form down to finally feeling an integral part of the first team. “I played quite a few games last season but I do feel that this season I am more of a first-team player,” he said. “We have got a young squad here, a lot of good young players and the manager has been excellent with all of us. We have had a few bad results but it looks like we are getting beyond that and hopefully we can continue our good run.”

The win over Dunfermline took place against the backdrop of intrigue after it had emerged earlier in the day that Lennon was all for the proposal to bring former manager Gordon Strachan back to the club in a mentoring role. The idea was discussed two months ago but a deal could not be struck. Forrest, though, was steering clear of contro-versy. “I think the gaffer has done a really good job since he has been in,” he said. “But it is obviously up to him, I can’t really say anything about that.”