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Daily Record
Daily Record
Sport
Michael Gannon

Jota lauds Celtic dressing room spirit as 'privileged' Portuguese puts Rangers Hampden showdown on the back burner

Celtic star Jota insists it’s a 'privilege' to be part of the Parkhead Premiership title juggernaut.

The Hoops ace is relishing life in Glasgow’s East End and playing a leading role as Ange Postecoglou’s men close in on Two-in-a-row while hunting down a Treble after collecting two of the trophies on offer last term. Jota was at his sizzling best as Celtic strolled to a 4-1 win against St Johnstone on a muddy McDiarmid Park pitch.

And the Portuguese playmaker admitted he is thrilled to be involved with such a slick side. Jota said: “It’s definitely a good time for me, but I think that happens because the team is supporting me and helping me. So, a shout-out to them because it’s been a privilege to be in the dressing room with such amazing team-mates and football players. I just want to continue to develop and enjoy it, and I’m really happy.”

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Celtic maintained their nine point lead in the Premiership and are now targeting the Scottish Cup, with St Mirren at Parkhead this weekend in the fifth round. Rangers also await in the Viaplay Cup Final at the end of the month – but Jota is refusing to get dazzled by the sparkle of silverware just yet.

He said: “That’s something we try to work on every day. We don’t think long-term, we think in the present and we just want to be better. We know there’s still plenty of room to develop and we can’t wait for the future to be better and just to bring the results to our fans.”

Jota insisted it was important Celtic didn’t trip up on the rutted Saints pitch at the weekend. The conditions might have been bumpy but it was another smooth afternoon for the Hoops as they managed to turn on the style despite the surface.

Jota told Celtic TV: “It was a very important result for us. We knew it would be a tough pitch to play on, you could see the grass was not the best. But we adapted and we keep going forward.

“We always stick to our principles and our philosophy. That’s the most important thing to do. No matter the conditions on the pitch, we need to try to deliver the results. Sunday was no different.

“Every game is different. There are different situations and you just need to acknowledge what’s the best decision on the pitch. Sometimes you need to do different stuff to break through their defences and to find the pockets and we just tried to do that.”

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