It may seem strange to say it, but a couple of weeks ago, in a season Celtic were closing in on a treble, Brendan Rodgers’ side were in danger of just allowing their campaign to fizzle out a little.
The Celtic manager has spoken repeatedly of the need for his men to sprint over the finishing line, but a lethargic display in defeat to the league’s bottom side St Johnstone at McDiarmid Park had provoked an angry response from Rodgers towards his squad.
The boot up the backside seems to have done the trick. In the two games since, Celtic have hit 10 goals, and got their revenge on the Saints by putting five past them in the Scottish Cup semi-final drubbing on Sunday.
Whether down to the long season or the handsome lead they enjoy at the top of the Premiership table, defender Liam Scales admits that the Celtic players had just got themselves stuck in a little bit of a rut.
“I think we just hit sort of a bit of a lull,” Scales said.
“And it happens in the season at certain stages. So, now that that's gone and we've put it behind us, it's really important to get up and kick on for the rest of the year, because we can make it a really enjoyable four or five weeks.
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“I think we've got a brilliant manager, a brilliant captain who have been through it all before. And a lot of players now who have won trebles here as well. So, I think we're all experienced at winning and that helps.
“There's a long way to go to get the treble. Obviously, the league's a lot closer, but in a cup final, anything can happen and it's going to be a tough game.
“So, you just want to take it game by game. We want to do as well as we can in the last five league games to give us the best rhythm going into the final.”
As well as the effect of the harsh words of their manager ringing in their ear, Scales revealed that Callum McGregor has been a driving force behind the greater energy now being shown on the pitch, with the players taking their cue from their captain.
“He's a machine,” he said.
“Week in, week out as well. He never slows. It's great to play under his leadership.
“I really enjoy it. He's probably the best man for the role. He's just so experienced now. Week in, week out, he’s brilliant.
“He's on fire [in front of goal]. From distance as well. That's the sort of quality he has.
“He's brilliant at linking the game. He's brilliant at the rough side of the game. In and around the box, he's a major threat. It's just his all-round game is brilliant. You can see the form he's in this season. It’s hard to stop him.
“He drives us on. I think sometimes you just need a wake-up call to bounce back. That's what we've done as a group.”
For McGregor, and for Celtic as a whole, trebles may be becoming almost routine, if that is possible. If they do manage to defeat Aberdeen in next month’s Scottish Cup Final, they will have secured their sixth domestic clean sweep in just nine years.
Scales though has yet to experience the feeling, and he cannot stress enough just what the feat would mean to him.
“I think it's exactly because of all the success we've had in the last 10 or 15 years, it's become almost the norm to win trebles,” he said.
“It would be my first one. I was on loan when they won it most recently and it would be massive for me.
“It means the world to me, and I know maybe other players have won it before, it probably still means the world to them to win a treble. It's amazing.”
Heeding the lessons of the temporary lull from a few weeks ago, though, Scales certainly isn’t taking anything for granted, as he emphasised the point that nobody at the club will be thinking that the outcome of their Hampden showdown with Aberdeen is a foregone conclusion.
“You've seen, even last season in the cup semi-final [against them], it went all the way to penalties,” he said.
“Obviously, in the League Cup this year, we had a good game against them. That's in our minds. But there's also that one from last season where you're like, it could go either way. If we're not at it, we know what they can do.
“We need to be at our best every week to win games. They're a good side. If we're not quite 100 percent at it, especially in a cup final at Hampden when it's not like we’ve got home advantage, then anything can happen in the cup.
“We know that. We know we need to be at our best.”
