Alistair Johnston has reflected on a unique title win with Celtic.
The defender spent most of the action from the sidelines as Martin O’Neill dragged the team to the top of the table after chasing for the entirety of the campaign.
The dramatic nature of the season, marked by final day decider against Hearts, made it one of the most memorable Celtic title wins in recent memory.
But Johnston was honest enough to admit: it wasn’t always nice being on the sidelines.
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Alistair Johnston on ‘the longest year’ at Celtic
Johnston said on international duty with Canada: “It wasn’t easy [being out].”
“When I heard the final whistle and you see how much it means to not only the players, but the senior players that won a ton.
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“When you look at James [Forrest], Cal [McGregor], but also the backroom staff. The kit men, and you see ‘wow, these guys each of them have won whatever I have multiplied by five in terms of trophies.
“The tears of joy, how much they’ve been through this entire year… I think that puts it all into perspective. I really didn’t play much football, but at the same time it felt like the longest year.
“Now I get to play at a World Cup in front of my home crowd, my family, my friends.
“It’s something you really can’t imagine. It’s not even in your wildest dreams growing up. I really can’t wait for it. It’s always such an amazing feeling when you get to go out and represent your country and sing your national anthem before the game.
“It’s so close now. I’ve just been busy this whole season focusing on getting back from my hamstring injury and focusing on Celtic that the World Cup has really snuck up on me.”
Canada play in the third game of the tournament against Bosnia, kicking off at 8PM UK time on Friday night.
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Johnston continued: “It’s understanding what their [Bosnia] wingers are all about.
“They’re about cutting inside, putting balls into the box. They’ve got Edin Džeko, who’s one of the players I watched growing up, and he’s still going at a really high level.
“They’ve got a lot of quality up there, they’re big, we understand that they want to play for a bit of chaos in the box and pick up second balls.
“We played against teams that are not dissimilar to that, and it’s about moving your feet, defending with 11, that you need your wingers to come back and do a job, you’re going to need your 10s, even your number nine potentially, to come back and help out.
“And that’s something that I think that we’ve again continued to chip away at.
“It’s not something that maybe comes naturally to us in terms of that mentality, but it’s something that we’re trying to continue to build on, and be really difficult to play against.”
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