Scottish cup final: Celtic striker braced for cup final snub

SINCE joining Celtic at the start of last season, Anthony Stokes has more than played his part in the club reaching back-to-back League Cup finals.

Seeing the job through to a successful conclusion, however, is a task which has so far been denied the Irish striker. On Sunday, he hopes Neil Lennon will grant him the opportunity to make up for one of the most disappointing days of his career.

Twelve months ago at Hampden, having scored five goals in the previous three rounds, Stokes spent 120 minutes cooling his heels on the Celtic bench as an unused substitute as Lennon’s team lost 2-1 after extra time to Rangers in the League Cup final.

The 23-year-old’s omission from the starting line-up even sparked an emotional outburst from his father who believed his son would be better served in seeking a move away from Celtic. Stokes junior resisted any such knee-jerk reaction, although faced further frustration in May when he was left out of the starting line-up for the Scottish Cup final against Motherwell. On that occasion, there was compensation in a 68th minute entry to the action and the collection of a winners’ medal.

He now hopes to play a more complete role in Sunday’s League Cup final against Kilmarnock, although accepts even his 20-goal contribution so far to Celtic’s season provides no assurance of a place in Lennon’s first eleven. “It’s just part and parcel of playing at a club with a big squad,” shrugged Stokes. “We’re all delighted to be in a cup final and on a personal level I’m hoping I’m going to be playing. But there’s not much you can do if you’re not in the side.

“It can be a bit frustrating but it’s about the team. It’s not about individuals. I think if you look at the size of our squad, everybody needs to understand that. Everyone does and we just get on with it. The main thing is we go there on Sunday and win.

“There are never any guarantees at this club. You do as well as you possibly can and hope you get the nod. That’s all I can really do. I have to do as well as I possibly can, score goals and give the gaffer a headache with the decisions.

“It was obviously disappointing to miss out last year but there’s not much you can do about it. If you are scoring goals and doing as well as you can, after that it’s out of your hands.

“I have spoken to the gaffer once or twice about not being in the team but I have always accepted his decision. I am one of those players who wants to play every week and I don’t think I’ll ever change. To be honest, I think the gaffer would probably be disappointed if players didn’t want to be in team.

“I scored quite a few goals last year and played reasonably well. But I wasn’t outstanding in every game or anything. You just have to work hard in training to show the manager you are ready and sharp. There is nothing you can do. Once he makes his decision, that’s it. If you are on the bench then you just have to focus on trying to make an impact if you come on. I’ve tried to take on board what the manager has said to me. I don’t think he worries about me too much in the box but it was my link play and holding the ball up that he wanted me to improve. I’ve tried to work on that. I still have a lot of areas I can improve but I’ll keep working hard.”

Kilmarnock have been significant opponents in Stokes’ Celtic career. He scored the winner on his debut against them in September 2010 and has netted four times in as many appearances in the fixture. That included a double in last October’s remarkable 3-3 draw at Rugby Park, the day Celtic recovered from a 3-0 half-time deficit and which is widely viewed as the turning point of their campaign.

“I missed a sitter early in the game when it was still 0-0,” recalled Stokes. “I got a bit of praise after the game for my two goals, but I was disappointed with the miss because it can change the game a lot if you go 1-0 up with Celtic. You tend to dominate after that and we don’t normally concede as many goals as we did that day.

“We turned it around in the second half, there were some exceptional performances. We stuck together and I remember thinking in the last ten minutes that we could actually go on and win it. But we haven’t looked back since then. We were in a bad place there but we fought back from it and I think the subsequent run in the Europa League probably helped us too. We went on a good run in the league and we probably got some confidence from playing some really good sides in Europe and doing well.”

From that ‘bad place’, Celtic now have the domestic treble firmly in their sights. While keen not to stray too far from the party line of taking each game as it comes, Stokes’ recognises the huge opportunity for a slice of history in front of him and his team-mates. “We are in a great position [for the treble],” he said. “But this is the business end of the season. It’s make or break now, over the next few weeks. We will have to be at our very best.”