Giorgos Giakoumakis knows his Celtic career has been more stop than start since his move from Holland in the summer.
But a sharp finish after just 13 minutes at Alloa on Saturday night is, he hopes, a sign that part two of the season is going to be a lot brighter than his initial spell.
That ended with him on an operating table to clear up a niggling knee problem.
The Greek striker made his first start since October 30, when he missed a last minute penalty in the 0-0 draw with Livingston, and has now scored in two of the three games he has started under Ange Postecoglou.
He said wryly: “I’m not happy about that. It could have been three starts and three goals but I missed the penalty.
“It’s something that’s really in my mind. I try to move on and I hope from now on I will score in every single game and help my team.”
The 27-year-old might have spent months in the shadows but he’s going to be front and centre in the next few weeks.
He’ll be involved in massive games against Hearts on Wednesday, Dundee United on Saturday and Rangers next midweek as the only fit central striker available to
Postecoglou in the absence of Kyogo Furuhashi, Albian Ajeti and Daizen Maeda.
It’s a prospect that the man signed after a stellar season with VVV-Venlo in Holland is relishing after such an inauspicious start at Celtic.
Giakoumakis added: “From now on I start my season. I hope I can be healthy until the end.
“To be the main striker was my goal since I started here. I try to push a lot. I missed pre-season, I didn’t have a pre-season.
“After that I had surgery on my injured knee. It was really a rough time for me.
“But now I’m back, I’m fit, healthy and I’m really happy for that. If I’m fit and healthy I will be the one.”
Celtic’s injury problems have been well documented this season and another three were added to the list when captain Callum McGregor, Yosuke Ideguchi and Liel Abada picked up knocks – the captain’s a potentially serious one – at the Indodrill Stadium on Saturday night.
Giakoumakis wasn’t pleased with some of the treatment dished out to his team-mates but he is convinced the January recruits added to the squad by Postecoglou will see them cope.
He said: “We have the depth in our team and our squad.
“Everyone can be in the first 11. That’s very important at a club that has big goals.”
And talking of big goals, he believes his early strike against Alloa will give him a massive confidence boost after having such a rough ride since arriving in Scotland.
He said: I’m very happy I got the goal. I scored a goal and tried to help the team as much as possible.
“We won a game that was tough with some challenges and a lot of duels. We scored two goals but I think we could’ve scored more, especially me.
“But we’re happy, we’re in the next round and we’re pleased.
“Goals give confidence to strikers. Mostly it is our job to score the goals to help the team win the games. I will try to stay fit and score some goals.
“I’ll try to improve myself because when you stay out for a long time you lose your confidence and your fitness.”
Next up is that clash with Hearts in Edinburgh, where Celtic lost on the first night of the season.
Since then, however, so much has changed under Postecoglou and Giakoumakis hopes it will also be a very different result on Wednesday night. He said: “It’s going to be a tough game against a strong squad, but we will face them like any other team. We will play our game and stick with our plan.
“We won’t be afraid of anything. This type of game is a big chance for us to show that we are a strong squad and we can beat anyone in this league.
“No matter what team we face we like to stick to our plan and play our game - whether it’s the Premiership or the second or third division we will play the same way.
“We want to go until the end. If it’s possible the target is to win the cup. But we will see, game-by-game.”
Postecoglou is certainly hoping that Giakoumakis’ goal will kick start his season. Being so short of players up front, it has to if Celtic are to maintain their title challenge over the next few weeks.
The Celtic boss said: “Obviously he didn’t play much in the first half of the year, so it was good for him to start and score.
“He’ll get better. There are parts of his game he’ll improve on because he hasn’t played in quite a while. As a striker, it was good that he got his goal.”
