Freddie Ljungberg convinced he'll win SPL winners' medal

• Freddie Ljungberg believes he and manager Neil Lennon, right, will still be smiling at the end of the season. Picture: SNS

The former Arsenal and Sweden midfielder finally made his debut for Celtic yesterday, playing 64 minutes of their 2-0 Scottish Cup fourth-round win over Berwick Rangers at Shielfield Park.

Illness had prevented Ljungberg making a far higher profile bow in the Old Firm game at Ibrox seven days earlier and he believes it will be at least another two weeks before he attains 100 per cent match fitness, having been out of the game since leaving MLS club Chicago Fire three months ago. There is no doubt in Ljungberg's mind that he has made the right move as he bids to re-ignite his top flight career.

"This team have the quality and want to play," said Ljungberg. "Most successful teams need to have the technical ability to dominate games and that's what they can do here.

"It's a young squad and I'm going to try to help them with how I play and hopefully we can go on to do great things. There's the potential to win the league and that's what we'll aim for. The important thing today was just to win the game. The pitch was icy, I've never played anywhere like this before, but it was just about being professional.

"We talked beforehand of whether I could play 45 or 60 minutes. I managed just over 60, so now I'll push on and play. I'll do extra training every day too. It's a bit like a pre-season for me and after a couple of weeks, hopefully I'll start to fly. They are going to keep testing me and push me as much as I can.

"It was a bit different making my debut today than it would have been at Ibrox, but that's how football works. It was upsetting last week. I was in bed at my hotel with a sick bucket next to me.

"Then I couldn't even watch the game, because they only had Sky Sports 1, 2 and 3 when the game was on Sky Sports 4!"

Neil Lennon's side have suffered their fair share of upsets in the Scottish Cup in the past, but goals either side of the interval from Daniel Majstorovic and Scott Brown saw them safely into the fifth round.

In the only other Scottish Cup tie to beat the weather yesterday, Motherwell cruised past Dundee 4-0 at Dens Park.

Motherwell manager Stuart McCall was not surprised to see Steve Jennings return from suspension in style after the midfielder headed home the third goal of the game.

Jennings has missed three matches following his sending-off against Hearts last month, which remains the focus of a Scottish Football Association investigation after bookmakers reported "unusual" betting patterns in the red card market.

The Liverpool-born player put in an assured display in midfield at Dens Park and headed home Motherwell's third goal in the 81st minute following a Tom Hateley cross.

"No surprise for me," McCall said when asked about Jennings' performance, which was only blotted by a yellow card for his part in a second-half confrontation.

"As I said before, when I was at Bradford I tried to sign him from Tranmere. He put in a performance that I expect him to do week in, week out.

"The only downside again is that he got a silly booking that he is going to have to cut out, but that's just his enthusiasm to help out his team-mates. I thought we had a lot of good performances but it's no surprise how Jenno played because I know he has good quality and he is a leader as well."