Mackay-Steven urges Celtic to be ruthless

Celtic winger Gary Mackay-Steven has fired a warning to the rest of the league, stating that his side are ready to ruthlessly punish any potential competitors that could pose a threat to their chase of the treble.

The Bhoys showed a real sign of their intentions for the remainder of the season on Tuesday evening as they demolished Hamilton 8-1 at Celtic Park to comprehensively put six points between them and Aberdeen at the top of the table.

As quoted by the Daily Express, he said:

The treble’s a big target. It’s realistic if we’re at it every game. There are winners in our changing room and we feel we can go on a good run now.

We feel we can do that to anyone on our day. It just shows that if we really get into our stride we can do that. We’ve not had too many big results like that, but it’s great for the confidence and it’s nice we had different scorers.

However, Scotland international Mackay-Steven has urged his team-mates to kick on from their excellent victory to keep up the same level of desire and hunger for goals in their upcoming fixtures.

The 25-year-old has found first-team chances hard to come by this season under boss Ronny Deila, but he managed to start for the first time since October and took his chance, impressing many Hoops fans who watched Celtic run riot.

It was a good night for me. I got the nod to start and I really enjoyed it so hopefully that can continue now.

In order for this to become a reality, Celtic will have to overcome their next challenges in the two cups.

Last night, East Kilbride beat Lothian Thistle 2-0 in the fourth round of the Scottish Cup and will face Celtic on February 7th with the match taking place at New Douglas Park.

Before that however, Celtic will play Ross County in the League Cup semi-final at Hampden on January 31st with a place in the final against St Johnstone or Hibernian up for grabs.