Returning Celtic star Alistair Johnston believes Daizen Maeda is showing all the signs of rediscovering his best form and blasting the defending champions to the title. Two goals from Maeda and a Kieran Tierney thunderbolt earned a hard-fought 3-1 home victory over Falkirk yesterday, leaving Martin O’Neill’s side behind league leaders Hearts purely on goal difference, having played a game more.
Johnston made his long-awaited return from injury as a second-half substitute and believes his Japanese team-mate can rekindle the magic that made him last term’s Player of the Year and bring a tumultuous season in the east end of Glasgow to a triumphant end.
“Daizen is on fire,” he told Sky Sports. “We need goals, it's as simple as that. He's our talisman. To get him scoring all types of ways, as we've seen over the past couple of weeks, will be massive for us. If he can kick on and take that level to where he was last season, for the last month, then I feel pretty good about our chances.”
Maeda really made the difference over the 90 minutes, and that wasn’t missed by manager Martin O’Neill in his post-match analysis. “Daizen was fantastic throughout the game,” he said. “He got us a goal from really nothing and continued to play brilliantly during the course of the match. Last week (against St Mirren), he got a goal from nothing as well. His closing-down is amazing. Even in the 85th minute, he closed someone down 15 yards from the corner. He was brilliant. I am also pleased one he missed late on was actually offside. Otherwise, I would have killed him. But, no, I couldn’t have done that today. He was tremendous in every aspect.”
Maeda has not quite hit the heights of last season over the course of this term, but O’Neill suspects the disappointment of seeing a switch to German side Wolfsburg fall through last summer could have had an effect on him – although he believes the Japanese ace has now shrugged that off as silverware comes into sight. “Maybe that move to the Bundesliga might have affected him at the time. He thought he was all set up for it, or so I believe. I wasn’t here. But that is what I have heard,” said O’Neill. “Maybe he thought he had done his job here and felt he deserved to go to the Bundesliga. When it didn’t happen, there was a natural disappointment. I am only putting that out there. It may not be that at all, but he has come roaring back and he is great. He deserves any accolades being bestowed.”
O’Neill also praised the disgruntled Parkhead support for uniting behind his team against Falkirk and putting their differences with the club’s hierarchy behind them with the title on the line. Fans turned up two hours early to welcome the team to the stadium and made it clear during the 90 minutes that their issues with the board have been put to one side for the moment. Club bosses served a ban on the club’s ultras factions earlier in the campaign, and there have been continued protests over the running of the business, but O’Neill was clear when asked about the benefits of the stadium presenting a real united front now the season is reaching boiling point.
“I agree. I think the vocal support we got was terrific,” he said. “I thought they stayed with the team when there were moments I thought the anxiety we showed for a little period of time on the field of play could have spilled over into the crowd. But they stayed with us and that was fantastic.”
O’Neill admits it was not a perfect performance against the Bairns, though, and has reiterated his view that Celtic must win all their remaining games to have a chance of defending their title successfully. “We’ve won and that’s important. I’ll watch the games tomorrow, but, for us, the mindset has to be that we cannot afford to drop a point,” he stated. “That is what was pleasing. At the stage Falkirk made it 2-1, the game is in the balance. It was tough. The pitch was immaculate and Falkirk have one or two players who definitely can play a bit. In the first half, after we got the goal, we were striving to get the second one and it became a bit like basketball. We can only treat each game on its merits. We’ve been battling strongly. We showed some fine play against Falkirk and also made some mistakes, which could have been costly. There's been a lot of adversity but the players have shown immense character. I know we use that word a lot but they did. In terms of momentum, I don’t know. We are still a long way from home.”
Tierney was taken off during the second half after suffering a knock, but O’Neill is optimistic he will be back for next Sunday’s trip to Hibernian. “I am hoping Kieran will be all right,” said O’Neill. “I think he recovered from the knock, but it was just the general fatigue with him that is causing a bit of a problem.”
Falkirk boss John McGlynn, meanwhile, was delighted with the way his side caused Celtic such problems. “We were very brave,” he said. “This was a huge challenge and the players did remarkably well. There wasn’t a lot in it. We were caught on the ball for the first two goals and we shouldn’t. We’ve just lost cheap goals, but the response was what I was looking for.”
