Alistair Johnston admits it was a dream come true to make his Celtic debut in such a huge game against Rangers.
But the new arrival left his family back home in Canada completely in the dark over his surprise inclusion in the Hoops' starting line-up at Ibrox as Ange Postecoglou's men battled to earn a draw against their bitter rivals. It was Daizen Maeda who got the league leaders off to a fine start before a quick second-half turnaround saw Ryan Kent and James Tavernier convert.
That was before Kyogo Furuhashi fired his first Old Firm goal with a few minutes to play to keep Celtic's advantage to nine points at the top of the table. And Johnston admits he wanted his family to be shocked at his name being on the teamsheet so that he could fully focus on his derby baptism of fire.
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He told Celtic TV: “It’s the one that every single footballer dreams of. You want to go in and play the biggest matches, and there’s not really a bigger match than that in the entire world of football.
"That’s right up there with the atmosphere, the intensity, the passion from both fanbases – it was immense. And though it wasn’t the result we wanted in the end, we’re happy that we were able to get something out of it at the end and send our fans home with something to hold on to.'
“I knew my family have been going a little too crazy if I let them know that I was starting, so I wanted them to wake up at 7am over there to check their phones and see me in the starting line-up and let them enjoy that moment and let me focus on the match.
“So we’ll see what they have to say but, again, I think they’ll be pretty excited for me and obviously happy with seeing their son, seeing their brother out there. It was an unbelievable experience and once you get a little bit of that taste, you just want more so I can’t wait for the next match already.”
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