ANTHONY RALSTON, as a Celtic supporter, perhaps feels the defeats to Rangers more than most in his dressing room. But as a Celtic player, he isn’t about to let a loss like the one his team suffered in the Scottish Cup semi-final have even the slightest bearing on the game to come tomorrow at Celtic Park.
In fact, despite his boyhood allegiances and the fact he remains a Celtic fan, Ralston says he will be treating the match against Rangers as he would any other match against any other opposition, even though this time there is the added spice of a win all-but clinching the title for his team.
After all, that is the formula that has got Celtic into this position, so as Ralston deduces – why change now?
“We have encountered them quite a few times recently but it’s obviously going to be a completely new game come the weekend,” Ralston said. “We don’t dwell on anything that happened in the past - the good or the bad.
“It is a new game, it’s the next game, the next chance for us to get three points and play our best football. And that’s what we will be aiming to do.
“It’s natural for these elements to be there because it is a derby, and that makes it different from the outside and you are fully aware of that. And as a Celtic fan you are maybe more aware than others.
“But when it comes down to the actual football side of it, it is just another game to be played as a footballer. And that is the attitude the team and myself will be taking into the weekend.
“Now, I know that sounds cliched, but it really is. You treat each game the same and I don’t really have any sort of mindset other than helping the team get the three points.
“It is no different because it is a derby.”
Even so, does the way that Rangers dominated the latter stages of that game at Hampden recently sow any seeds of doubt in Celtic minds? Not so, Ralston contends.
“We are talking games of football,” he said. “These things can happen, and unfortunately it did.
“We have dusted ourselves down, we have had a game since then where we have gone out and addressed what we had to address and we have moved on.
“We are focusing on the game at the weekend with nothing in the backs of our heads regarding that [what happened at Hampden] so we are ready to go.”
The evidence that Celtic have got that game out of their systems, as Ralston says, was there in the steely way they went about their business in Dingwall last week.
“You can see our mindset in our performances and that was there away to Ross County,” he said. “There was no sort of edge, no feeling we had to do something different.
“It was just about playing the football we have done all season and focusing on getting the three points, and getting the job done.
“That is what we did and that is what we will look to do at the weekend.”
It has been quite the ride for the Celtic players and fans this season, with Ralston hitting their first goal of the Premiership season on the opening day at Tynecastle, only for Hearts to win it at the death – one of three defeats in their opening six league games.
The effort it has taken to come from where they were that night to where they are now isn’t lost on Ralston, who is now determined to finish the job.
“It was a difficult start but we knew there were players coming in, players going, and that wouldn’t make it the easiest of times,” he said.
“But we fought through that and we have come out the other end. And from that beginning of the season it has been a nice journey, I’ve enjoyed it and just hope it has a good ending.”
