Fraser Forster: Celtic ready to get title bid back on track

By David Walton

October 17, 2019

Fraser Forster has stated that Celtic’s title push is set to hit the road again after a couple of speed bumps.

The Hoops started the season in ridiculously good form. They had managed to win their opening six Premiership matches and built up a three-point lead over Rangers.

However, almost out of nowhere, we suffered back-to-back Premiership setbacks. A 1-1 draw at Easter Road was acceptable given the dominance we had over the Leith side. But that was followed by a shocking 2-0 defeat at Livingston almost two weeks ago.

Neil Lennon’s side have been rocked by two poor results (Mark Runnacles/Getty Images)

It’s rocked us, and we now sit second in the Premiership. However, after a “frustrating” break according to Forster, he told the Celtic View (Volume 55, Issue 15, Page 15) that the Hoops are ready to get going again.

“We’ll all be excited to get going again, especially with the desire to get a win on the board after that result (Livingston). We’ve had a bump in the road but it’s about how you respond to it.

“You need to take what you can from the game, learn from it, and make sure it doesn’t happen again. We’ll all be judged on how we bounce back and we’ll be looking to prove a point.

“It’s a little frustrating that it’s now the international break because we wanted to get into it off the back of a win, but we can’t control what’s happened. The international boys are away working hard and the rest of us here are working hard so we’ll be in a good place, ready for our next game when it comes.”

Celtic must take no prisoners between now and December 29th

Livingston was a real blow. It was our first league defeat of the season, and it was a convincing one at that. Celtic should’ve performed to a much greater standard than what they did, even with 10 men.

Fraser Forster and co must get back on track immediately (Ewan Bootman/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

However, Celtic must now show a ruthless streak. It’s not nice to say, but we have to show form similar to what Rangers did after losing to us. Convincing at home and ruthless away – that’s what we must do until we get ourselves some distance between us and our rivals.

It all culminates in a December 29th showdown between ourselves and Steven Gerrard’s men at Parkhead. The goal has to be to get ahead before that game before sticking the dagger in their hearts heading into the winter break.

The loss to Livi was unexpected, but nowhere near disastrous. It’s difficult to remember what that losing feeling is like domestically. Celtic have been so dominant under Lenny this season that the blips were a huge surprise. However, so long as we stay focused and take things one game at a time, we’ll be just fine.

Will Celtic get back to winning ways this weekend? (Ewan Bootman/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Forster’s attitude must be shared around the squad. He’s talking about making sure the result two weeks ago was a “bump on the road”. As it stands now, we can’t afford any more of those bumps for the time being.

With Ross County, Lazio, and Aberdeen our next three fixtures, there’s a chance to build some real confidence up once again. Now, we’re about to truly find out what this Lennon side is made of.