Greg Taylor is eyeing up more Scottish Cup success

Celtic F.C.

·19 April 2024

Greg Taylor is eyeing up more Scottish Cup success

The penultimate Scottish Cup weekend of the 2023/24 season is upon us as the Hoops get set to play Aberdeen in Saturday’s semi-final showdown at Hampden to battle for a place in the May 25 final.

With much of the focus in the media this week being on the last five SPFL fixtures with the post-split card announced on Tuesday past, there are four teams preparing for six games to go with the semi-final action this weekend.

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All four of them will be hoping to have seven games left, but, after the weekend, only two of them will have their hopes realised.

Celtic, of course, are among that group and among the Hoops players who have tasted Scottish Cup success before is Greg Taylor.

He has lifted the trophy twice – 2020 and last season’s 2023 win – and he’s looking for more success in the competition, and the anticipation is rising with the Hoops hitting momentum and peak form at the right time.

The defender said: “I’m excited, it’s always nice to get back to Hampden but it will be a difficult game tomorrow.

‘It’s the business end of the season, and we always want to finish strongly.’

“It’s been a big part of the success we’ve had in previous seasons, but we understand this is a new season and there’s ‘x’ amount of games to do that.”

The Celts are, of course, in the running for both the SPFL title and the Scottish Cup as we near the term’s end, having missed out on the League Cup earlier in the season.

But Taylor feels that the impetus for success is always there and that the earlier trophy miss doesn’t necessarily increase the will to win.

He said: “Every competition we enter, we try and win, and this Scottish Cup is no different.

“We want to be on top, but we also know that there are five league games left and when the league comes back around, we’ll be focused on that.

“But for now and this week, the preparation has been fully on Aberdeen and the semi-final of the Scottish Cup.”

The Dons travel to Glasgow knowing that incoming manager, Jimmy Thelin, will be keeping a close eye on the semi-final as interim manager, Pete Leven, remains in charge of the side until the end of the season.

And Taylor knows the Pittodrie side will be no pushovers as he worked under Leven previously at Rugby Park.

The Celt said: “Obviously their league form hasn’t been what they would have wanted, there’s no secrets about that, but I think Peter Leven’s got them playing some good stuff.

“I worked with Peter at Kilmarnock and I know he’s a real top coach, so I’m sure it will be a really difficult game.

“He’s a really honest guy. He wants to play football the right way in my eyes. He wants to play football from the back and try and control the ball

“He was always very invested in youth when I was at Kilmarnock coming through. He put a lot of his own time into trying to make me a better player, so he’s someone I’ll always be really grateful to.”

Mentality, focus and experience will have a big part in what occurs over the weekend and the coming weeks, and Taylor feels that Celtic have these in abundance going into the pressure-pot end to the season.

He said: “It’s important that we have real strong foundations, a real strong philosophy on how we want to play our football. That’s not changed throughout the whole season.

‘There have been strong parts of the season, there’s been low parts of the season, but I think we’re peaking at a good time.’

“We’ve got a lot of bodies back and we’re hopefully trying to reach our top level of football in these last few games.

“It’s a big part of it, of course pressure is in these big games, but for us we work throughout the week on how we want to play and I think that’s a big part of it because when it comes to the games at the weekend, you know what rhythms you’re trying to get into, what type of patterns or how we want to play.

“So the coaching staff and the manager can take big credit in that. We know everything and know our roles when we go to the pressurised situations.”

And as for the experience of winning the trophy before, he said: “I don’t know if it helps, it certainly makes you excited for more.

“There’s no better feeling than winning trophies at this club, and the success is what you work all season for, it’s what you work in pre-season for.

“It’s everything, so this is no different now and Saturday is a big one.”