CALLUM McGREGOR maintained his 100 per cent title-winning record as Celtic captain as the champions overcame Hearts 3-1 at Parkhead yesterday.
The 32-year-old influential midfielder took over as the Hoops skipper in the summer of 2021 after Scott Brown left for Aberdeen.
Ange Postecoglou immediately gave the armband to McGregor and, following the club’s first trophyless campaign in 11 years, the onfield leader picked up his fifth successive crown and his eleventh overall.
Arne Engels, with a penalty-kick, wiped out Lawrence Shankland’s opening goal while late strikes from Daizen Maeda and Callum Osmand got the job done during a tense and dramatic encounter in the east end of Glasgow.
JUST CHAMPION…Callum McGregor holds aloft his eleventh title after the 3-1 win over Hearts at Parkhead. Benjamin Nygren and Kelechi Iheanacho join in the celebrations.
It was bedlam at full-time as fans came onto the pitch in wild celebrations and McGregor reflected on his latest success and said: “It’s the best… the way the game ended and the emotion. We had to win.
“It wasn’t a great first-half, but these boys just keep going and going and going – and eventually we got our reward. What a special day.
“You can’t do this job without being emotional. You can’t separate the two.”
McGregor, speaking to Celtic TV, added: “When things were as bad as they were in December, you feel it every single day and you want to fix it.
“So, when you get it right you also have that equal level of emotion that just spills over.
“This is what this place does to you. You carry it every day in life and to be able to give the supporters this type of day back for such a hard season, I’m so proud of the players.”
Now McGregor and his team-mates will want to bring down the curtain in style when they face up to Neil Lennon’s Dunfermline at Hampden on Saturday.
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