Aaron Mooy’s coffee should taste good this morning. Another Celtic victory, another goal for the Australian midfielder and a Scottish Cup semi-final at Hampden to look forward to.
At times, it might not look like the Hoops midfielder is enjoying life at Parkhead. But the 32-year-old insists he’s savouring every minute of his time under Ange Postecoglou. Mooy was outstanding for Celtic again at Tynecastle yesterday as they dismantled Hearts to secure a 3-0 quarter-final win. He got them off and running with an opening goal inside two minutes. Kyogo Furuhashi doubled their lead before half-time then Cameron Carter-Vickers put the game to bed with a header late on.
Mooy isn’t a fan of doing media interviews after games. But when he thinks about what Celtic is giving him at this stage of his career, he just can’t keep the smile off his face. The Australia international says he’s never felt like this before in football. The pressure to win every game, an expectant support who demand trophy after trophy. Mooy admits it’s a RELIEF whenever he’s part of a Hoops victory.
But he’s adamant that he is taking in the whole experience as he bids to lift every domestic trophy available this term. After Celtic moved a step closer to a domestic Treble with victory in Gorgie – their 13th win in a row – Mooy said: “Is this the happiest I’ve been in my career? I don’t know.
“Listen, Celtic is a demanding club. Whenever I play I’m under pressure to perform and win. That’s what the supporters expect.
“It’s enjoyable because you feel everything at this club. The support, the pressure. Everything you can feel in football, you feel it at Celtic.
“I’m enjoying the challenge and hopefully it can be a good season. But I hate this bit, doing press conferences!
“But the heightened senses here really energise me. I’m getting a bit older so I’m trying to maximise everything that I’m doing.
“Celtic is a club where you feel the support, you feel everything. I’m just taking it all in.
“It’s a feeling of relief when you win more than exhilaration, 100 percent. Especially in big games, that’s the first thing you feel relief – it’s not joy or happiness.
“Because you just did what you were meant to do. That’s something I have not experienced before in my career.”
His manager might be shutting down any talk of a Treble and former St Mirren, Manchester City, Huddersfield and Brighton star Mooy also isn’t the type of player to get carried away or believe the hype.
But after producing another terrific display in Edinburgh yesterday, the playmaker says they’re gunning for every bit of silverware.
He said: “It’d be amazing to win all three trophies, obviously. But we’re just taking it one game at a time, we can’t look too far ahead.
“Obviously, we want to do it, we want to win every game we play in. It was the perfect start for us today to get a goal so early. You can’t ask for any more.
“I thought we did the job that we came here to do. We played well in stages of the match and it’s not always like that away from home. So you have to be resilient. We did that and passed the test.
“It’s hard to say if we’re playing the best football since I came here. As long as we keep winning, that’s our job.
“The supporters and everyone else can decide on that stuff. We just go out there, do our movements, do our jobs and try to win the game.”
Mooy scored his seventh goal of a productive season against the Jambos but says it’s NOT the best scoring run of his career. Yesterday, he got on the end of an excellent pass from Jota before producing a polished finish past Hearts keeper Zander Clark.
Mooy says with top quality players like the Portuguese winger around him, he’ll always get opportunities in front of goal. He vowed to watch his strike back last night – while that coffee this morning will taste a whole lot sweeter.
Mooy said: “It’s not my best goalscoring season so far – I scored goals in Australia earlier in my career. But in this team, there are good players everywhere. You make the runs and they see you.
“The system creates chances. Hopefully I can get some more. I do enjoy it. When we have a good game, my morning coffee tastes better.
“Until the game is won, I don’t enjoy it that much. Until the whistle goes and we’ve done our job. I won’t watch the full match again. I’ll probably watch my goal or the highlights.”
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