IRELAND WINGER JONNY Hayes is on the brink of writing a significant piece of history with Celtic this weekend — and he’s forever grateful.
Well and truly on course for the triple treble, the Dubliner insists that he’ll never take the club’s recent successes — and the opportunity to add more trophies to the cabinet — for granted.
Hayes is grateful to be at the top after the Hoops’ drought when he was younger.
After 2-1 beating Hearts last weekend to celebrate their Premiership title win, the same opposition stand in the way of a ninth consecutive domestic trophy as the sides go head-to-head in the Scottish Cup final on Saturday.
And he’s determined to go one step further with dominance on their side and the wind in their sails.
“Being able to compete for a ninth league title is remarkable, especially when you consider the competitiveness of modern football,” Hayes told the club’s website.
“There was, of course, a long spell in the 1990s when Celtic were less successful – but now there’s dominance on our side. You can never take any of it for granted.
“I’ve seen the league when our rivals were winning titles, and while it’s the flip-side now, there are a lot of people out there who won’t remember the bad times. That’s why standards nowadays are so high. People almost expect trophies, they expect dominance.
“We really enjoyed Trophy Day at the weekend, and we now turn our full attention to another game against Hearts, this time at Hampden. We know we’re up against a very good side, but we want to win and ensure we go down in history.”
This great success has been years in the making, the 31-year-old adds.
Finishing any season with a cup final is a stellar achievement, he says, but never mind a decider that’s so significant with unprecedented success just around the corner.
“There’s obviously a lot of hard work to get to this point, not just month or this season, it’s been three years in the making. It’s nice to look forward to a cup final in any circumstances, never mind the one we’re in.
“You saw Ryan Christie speaking to the media a couple of weeks ago, and he was talking about how at that point we had a trophy day and a cup final to look forward to.
“No matter what team you play for, no matter what league you play your football in, to have a trophy day and cup final as your last two games – take away the fact we’re on for a Treble Treble – anyone would bite your hand off for that.”
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