Callum McGregor has urged Celtic ’s high-flying stars to stay humble and remain ahead in the title fight.
The Parkhead outfit soared to the top of the Scottish Premiership with their derby destruction of Rangers.
Ange Postecoglou ’s team are now a point clear with 14 games remaining in the flag race and carrying serious momentum and confidence as they prepare for their next outing at Motherwell on Sunday.
However, although happy to savour a first Old Firm triumph in over two years, the skipper insists Celtic must keep a foot firmly on the pedal and stay totally grounded and focused with a long way to go.
McGregor insists there won’t be a shred of arrogance around the camp and also dismissed talk of psychological blows being struck as he said: “I don’t think so.
“We’re a good group, we’re an honest group. We know where we are and we know how far we’ve come in a short space of time.
“As a group we probably felt it was coming, we felt we were due it, but you still have to go and deliver and that is what we did.
“We’ll take the confidence from that, but we’ll not have any arrogance.
“We won’t think anything is done because it’s certainly not.
“We’ve been over the course before, there will be a lot more twists and turns in the title race between now and the end of the season and all that does is give us a good platform.
“Every single game, we have to be at it, we’ve got to play like that every week if we can.
“To be honest, the manager will demand that anyway. He’s been absolutely first-class. He’s really challenged the group and the boys have responded really well thus far.
“It’s another challenge for us now to stay humble, keep working and don’t get above our station because we haven’t achieved anything yet at all.
“That’s the job of the senior players, to get around the younger lads and make sure they keep working, keep performing, and keep getting better as a team.”
McGregor was keeping his team-mates calm at the full-time whistle and ensuring no one went overboard after the Rangers win.
He said: “Absolutely. You have to enjoy these nights, that’s why we play football, that’s why we play for this club, because there’s a demand on us to win these games.
“When that happens, you have to enjoy it, of course. Soak up the atmosphere and then bottle it and use it for later experiences.
“It’s so important we don’t get carried away. We’ve still got a long way to go in the league and, even as a team we’re still growing, we’re still getting better.
“There’s a lot of development in this team, but we have to make sure we stay humble and keep working hard to achieve that.”
McGregor has switched attention straight to Fir Park and continued: “Absolutely, that’s now our next focus, recover, train Friday and Saturday and go again on Sunday.
“That’s what this club is all about. You play well on the Wednesday night and then you have to play well on the Sunday.
“That’s the demands that everybody puts on you, that’s the demands we put on each other as players and certainly the manager puts that on us as well.
“So, that is the full focus, we have to go to Fir Park now on Sunday and win.”
McGregor, though, did allow himself to savour another win over Rangers to add to his CV and said: “It’s right up there.
“Obviously the atmosphere was something special. We knew the supporters would give us that.
“It was the first night-time game here against Rangers for a while, so we knew it was going to be special.
“We spoke about that as a group, that we had to get a quick start in the game and use that energy and our quality in the game.”
