JAMES Forrest last night revealed that Celtic will head into their first match against Rangers of the campaign at Ibrox on Saturday looking to improve on their record-breaking 5-1 victory last season.
Brendan Rodgers’s side scored five goals at the Govan ground for the first time in their 129-year history against Pedro Caixinha’s team in April.
But Forrest, who is hoping to start after netting twice in a 4-0 triumph over Ross County at Parkhead at the weekend, stressed there would be no let-up from the Scottish champions.
Asked if he thought Celtic could better the 5-1 scoreline, he said: “Yes, that is what it is all about. It is about getting better and doing even more. We will be going there and looking for another positive result.”
Forrest admitted that Celtic, who extended their unbeaten run of games domestically to 55 against County, wanted to lay down a marker for the season, just like they did at this time last year when they thrashed Rangers 5-1 at Parkhead.
He believes it will be more difficult due to the players Caixinha has signed this summer – including Bruno Alves, Graham Dorrans, Ryan Jack and Alfredo Morelos.
However, the winger believes his side will draw confidence from their record against the Ibrox club last term – they won five and drew one of those meetings.
“I think that is what happened last year with the game at Celtic Park,” he said. Most of the games were closer apart from the last one at Ibrox. We know it is going to be hard and we want to come out with a win.
“Everybody always says you can forget about the games before, but at the same time we have had a good record. And that does give us confidence going into the game.
“They have made some signings and we know it will be tough. We will be up against new faces so we need to make sure we are right at it.
“It is a new season and they have new players and we have new players. It is a clean slate so we have to make sure we go there and do a job.
“The atmosphere there is just like here in an Old Firm game. That is what you want to play in and test yourself in. Last year we went there and managed to get a couple of victories. And we will be looking to do that again.”
A win over Rangers on Saturday would put Celtic eight points clear of their opponents in the league table, but Forrest dismissed suggestions that it would kill off their rivals’ chances of winning the Scottish title.
“We just take every game as it comes,” he said.
“Nobody has mentioned what we can achieve at all. We had the Champions League, we have a cup quarter final in midweek and then an Old Firm game on Saturday.
“It is still early days. We just need to keep focusing on ourselves.
“They [Rangers] dropped points on Friday night, but we didn’t let that concern us. We just went out against Ross County and put on a performance for ourselves and get confidence that way.”
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