Reality dawning on Celtic star as pre-match jitters admission made ahead of potential title clincher

For so long there has been an inevitability to Celtic’s romp towards the Premiership title - not that anyone at the club would publicly admit it.

Determined to stay in the moment, their focus has always been on whatever game was next. But now, as they head to Tynecastle on Sunday aware that they can claim their 11th league trophy in 12 years, the reality is dawning.

“You know what is at stake in these games,” conceded left-back Greg Taylor. “There is no point in saying it’s one game at a time now because the next game is Hearts and, if you take care of business in that game, it’s a league title.

“So the focus goes to that. We’ll just prepare the same way we have done all season because it has brought us pretty good success so far.”

Greg Taylor in action for Celtic during the Scottish Cup semi-final win over Rangers at Hampden. (Photo by Craig Foy / SNS Group)

But he expects to have to deal with some pre-match jitters as the team push on for the third leg of a treble that eluded them last season.

“As a player, I’m normally not too bad the night before games, it’s normally on the morning of them. The pre-match [meal] can be difficult to get down, certainly when it comes to the big games. There is the pressure of playing with this club regardless of the opponent and regardless of the occasion, it’s expectancy. But, once you are out there, the game just takes care of itself.”

Celtic will pitch for the final piece of the domestic trophy triumvirate in next month’s Scottish Cup final. With Championship side Inverness Caledonian Thistle all that stands between them and glory, many assume that they are already guaranteed the clean sweep.

“Some might say that, we won’t,” stated the 25-year-old Scotland full-back. “I watched a bit of the other semi-final and thought Inverness were outstanding with a really experienced striker up front in Billy McKay.

“So we know that will be a difficult game, but we still have five games to go in the league and we need to get our job done there first by playing our football and then we’ll be ready when the cup-tie comes around.”