Celtic plan winning tribute to Burns

Football

Celtic hold their nerve to retain crown

Thursday, May 22, 2008

The Celtic captain Stephen McManus is determined to pay a "tremendous tribute" to Tommy Burns by winning the Scottish Premier League.

Celtic, who lead Rangers by four goals on goal difference, will almost certainly secure their third successive championship if they win at Dundee United tonight. The last time Celtic clinched the title at Tannadice, 27 years ago, Burns was on the scoresheet.

McManus believes lifting the SPL trophy on Tayside would be a fitting honour in a week when the legendary former player, manager and coach was laid to rest. "We have always said from the start of the season, especially when things got a bit tough, when folk started getting on our backs, that we were doing it for ourselves," he said.

"That's still the case but I think things have changed in the last week. We'll certainly be using the Tommy side of it as a motivation. It would be a fitting end to the season and a tremendous tribute if we could go and win the title, and it would certainly be dedicated to Tommy."

The Celtic manager, Gordon Strachan, would not say his team would win the title for Burns, who was first-team coach and head of youth development in his final years at the club, but he knows his close friend would like to see those around him happy again after a painful week since Burns died aged 51 last Thursday.

"What you have got to remember is that Tommy has never asked anyone to do anything for him in his life," Strachan said. "What Tommy would like is other people around him enjoying themselves. So we are going to do it for everyone Tommy would like to do it for. And that includes his team-mates, players, fans. We will be doing it for the people who Tommy wanted to see enjoying themselves."

Strachan shed tears when he spoke to the media on the day Burns died, insisting their friendship had been the highlight of his time at Parkhead. The tears flowed again in the east end of Glasgow on Tuesday when the funeral cortege passed by 20,000 supporters outside Celtic Park after an emotional service at nearby St Mary's Church.

But the Celtic manager is confident his players, who all attended the church in Calton, can now get the "blinkers" on and focus on football. "It's a rollercoaster ride," Strachan said. "Sometimes you get through it, sometimes you don't. Sometimes you think you are over it and have done your crying and you start again.

"But I can see they're switched on now for the game. That's good because it has been an emotional four or five days. You just hope as coaches we have done our best in the last couple of days.

"And today we were back to normal – laughing and joking and hard work. That's the way we have got to do it – it's blinkers on now and we get on with the game. We have got ourselves to the last game of the season and six or seven weeks ago people didn't think that was possible.

"So we take the enthusiasm we get from the last six or seven weeks and we use that from this morning to the game."

McManus agreed that they would be able to concentrate on the match despite their grief for their popular coach. "It has certainly been the toughest week a lot of us have had to deal with in our career," the 25-year-old added. "Football has had to take a back seat, to be perfectly honest. It was good getting the funeral done yesterday – now we can concentrate on the football."

Celtic have a full squad available. Andreas Hinkel could come back into first-team contention after missing the 2-0 win over Hibernian 11 days ago with a knock.

Scott Brown is also pushing for a recall after losing his central midfield place to Barry Robson.

Provisional squad: Boruc, Hinkel, Naylor, Caldwell, McManus, Robson, Hartley, McGeady, Nakamura, Vennegoor of Hesselink, McDonald, Samaras, S Brown, Wilson, Donati, Balde, Caddis, M Brown.