CALLUM McGREGOR kicked off his first game under his third Celtic manager in the champion’s hard-fought and dramatic 1-0 triumph over Dundee at Dens Park on Sunday.
The 25-year-old midfielder added Neil Lennon to his Hoops boss’ list after making his first appearance in Ronny Deila’s debut campaign in season 2014/15 and became a mainstay when Brendan Rodgers arrived in May 2016.
Neil Lennon completed the managerial hat-trick when McGregor, who had missed the previous four games with a calf injury, lined up alongside skipper Scott Brown on Tayside.
NEW BHOY…Callum McGregor in action against Legia Warsaw in August 2014 during Ronny Deila’s debut season.
And the Scotland international midfielder, who is poised to play in the Euro 2020 qualifier against Kazakhstan in Astana on Thursday afternoon, insisted Odsonne Edouard’s stoppage-time points-clincher emphasised why Celtic are zeroing in on their eighth successive title.
The Frenchman’s strike finally broke the resistance of a stubborn, relegation-threatened Dens outfit and moved the Parkhead men TEN points clear in the pursuit of another championship and an unprecedented domestic treble treble.
McGregor, speaking on Celtic’s YouTube channel, said: “It’s a great sign of champions that they just keep going, no matter the result or the performance.
“We knew what we had to do and credit to the lads, we stuck to it right to the end and obviously we got the goal with a wee bit of quality.
“We were actually really good in the first 50 or 60 minutes, we created a lot of chances and probably could have been two or three up at half-time, but sometimes you don’t get them and you keep digging in and digging in and keep going.
“To get to 10 points is massive. We spoke about what we wanted to do in the game beforehand.
“We let a chance slip last week and we were determined not to do that and again it just shows you the resilience of these players that you never know when you are beat or going to drop points, you always get that goal.
“It’s a true sign of champions.”
OLD FAMILIAR FEELING…Celtic stage a late show at Dens Park with Odsonne Edouard’s winner.
McGregor will now switch his attention from club to country with the Euro double-header over the next five days with the Astana test up first and then San Marino due on Sunday.
After the international challenges, it will be back to Premiership points-collecting on March 31 when Steven Gerrard brings his team to the east end of Glasgow for the second time in this campaign.
A goal from Olivier Ntcham gave the title kings a 1-0 victory back in early September. A similar scoreline will hand Lennon’s team a 13-point advantage with only seven games to play.
