David Marshall opens up on 'weird' Celtic return with Hibs as he recalls time he's been back to Parkhead since departure

David Marshall is in good form and is currently the Hibs No 1 and captain.

The 37-year-old goalkeeper came through the ranks at Celtic and made 44 appearances for the club between 2002 and 2007 before moving to England for 15 years of his career.

Spells at Norwich City, Cardiff City, Hull City, Wigan Athletic, Derby County and Queens Park Rangers coincided with him winning the majority of his 47 Scotland caps, but he has only returned twice to Celtic Park – on international duty in 2014 against Republic of Ireland and England – since his departure.

Now back in Scottish football and in good form with Hibs, Marshall is preparing to take on the champions as the Easter Road look to bounce back from Tuesday’s 1-0 defeat by Dundee United in the cinch Premiership.

Marshall was part of the Celtic first team for five years between 2002 and 2007.

“I played at Celtic Park for the Scotland v Ireland game a few years ago but this will be the first time I’ve gone back to play Celtic,” Marshall said.

“It will be weird having been there when I was so young and going back now.

“But I am looking forward to it, you want to be playing in these stadiums.

“I know a few of the people who are still there, [current assistant manager] John Kennedy was there when I was coming through and is on the staff now.

Marshall was back at Celtic Park in 2014 to play for Scotland against Republic of Ireland.

“And I know [goalkeeping coach] Stevie Woods from when he was in the academy at Celtic and then moved up.

“It’s a great platform for us to go there and show everyone we are a team doing well so I just we can take something from the game.”

Marshall is braced for a backlash from Celtic, given they suffered their own defeat on Tuesday in the Champions League against RB Leipzig.

“Celtic will do what the Old Firm always do when their backs are against the wall – they will look to go on a run,” continued Marshall.

“They will want to start that against us on Saturday.

“I was there when I was younger coming off the back of big nights, the crowd can be different and it can be difficult to get going at times.“If that’s the case then we will try to take advantage of that.

“But we know that the way their manager sets them up, it’s the first 15 or 20 minutes they try to win games in.

“It’s a tough test for us but we will take confidence from the way we played against Dundee United.

“We had enough chances to win two or three games. In the second half, especially, it was one-way traffic and we had a lot of chances.

“Goals change games, they got theirs and probably felt they could see it out – it just wasn’t to be for us.

“We have to take the positives, we seem to have taken massive steps in the last few weeks.

We lost 1-0 to St Mirren about a month ago but that felt completely different to Dundee United.

“We know we’re creating chances, we have people in the team who are playing really well.

“The only disappointment the other night was the result, the performance was there – and if you play like that over 30 games we’ll be fine.”