CAMERON CARTER-VICKERS played for SEVEN clubs in as many years and failed to achieve a solitary honour.
After 21 months at Celtic, the rock-solid centre-back has picked up three winners’ medals and is on the brink of adding two more to his sudden landslide of silverware.
Two League Cups and a Premiership badge have been annexed since the Southend-born US World Cup performer arrived in Glasgow on a season-long loan on deadline day in August 2021 which was followed by a permanent £6million move from Spurs in the summer.
STOOPING TO CONQUER…Cameron Carter-Vickers swoops in to head Celtic’s third goal in their 3-0 Scottish Cup win at Tynecastle.
Carter-Vickers scored his first goal of the current crusade when he neatly head-flicked a masterful Matt O’Riley left-wing free-kick past the stranded Zander Clark for the Hoops’ final strike in the 3-0 Scottish Cup quarter-final triumph over flattened Hearts at Tynecastle yesterday.
The Hoops had already been coasting following a quickfire opening strike from Aaron Mooy inside two minutes and another from Kyogo Furuhashi, his 26th of a prolific term, on the stroke of half-time.
The effort in Edinburgh was the defender’s fifth goal for the Hoops, but the lack of forcing opposing keepers to retrieve the ball from the back of their net is not something that overly concerns the Celt.
Carter-Vickers insisted: “I’ve said before, it’s not something that I’m desperate to do – score goals obviously, being a defender first and foremost, but when I can help the team, I try to.
“It’s always good to score goals and it was the first of the season for me, so I was happy.”
CELTIC’S ROCK…Cameron Carter-Vickers in charge against Hearts.
The 25-year-old central defender has had a grandstand view of the his Hoops colleagues as the goals have piled up at the other end with 11 in three games this month.
However, the player revealed: “To be honest, I’m not watching too much, I trying to stay concentrated in case they counter.
“But it’s definitely good, some of the football we play is unbelievable and I’ve got a great view of it.
“I thought it was a good performance. We started very well, maybe lost control of the game a little bit midway through the first-half, but for the majority of the game we played well and dominated.
“We were aware that when you come to places like this, you’ve got to start well and try to quieten the crowd as much as possible, and I thought we did that.
“I enjoyed the game, as a team we played well and you always want to play in atmospheres like this and get the win.”
GETTING SHIRTY… Hearts defender Andy Halliday is up close and personal as Cameron Carter-Vickers clears his lines during the Hoops’ Cup success in Edinburgh.
Ange Postecoglou’s side appear to be growing in strength with every passing game and Carter-Vickers, speaking to Celtic TV, added: “I think that’s our goal. The manager is always on at us that no matter how well we play before the game, that he wants us to improve in the next performance.
“It the kind of message that the group has taken to really well and we’ll constantly try to improve.
“We are a very focused group,. We’re always trying to improve so we look forward to every game we play and we just want to go out there and perform the best we can.”
Next up for the champions is the visit of Hibs on Saturday and it will take an almighty effort to improve on their last performance against the Edinburgh club.
Back in October, Celtic thumped six behind former Hoops No.1 David Marshall with James Forrest rattling in a hat-trick on his way to becoming a Ton-Up Bhoy with 100 goals for the club.
Carter-Vickers won’t be too worried if he never reaches that figure!
FOR THE RECORD: Carter-Vickers joined Spurs in 2016 and had loan deals at Sheffield United, Ipswich Town, Swansea City, Stoke City, Luton Town and Bournemouth before signing a temporary contract at Celtic. In the summer, he agreed permanent terms until June 2026.
CAPITAL PERFORMANCE FROM TREBLE YELL HOOPS
