Liam Scales believes Celtic’s late run to a league and cup double will have a two-fold effect on next season.
The 27-year-old Republic of Ireland defender helped the Hoops to a 3-1 Scottish Gas Scottish Cup final win over Dunfermline at Barclays Hampden on Saturday, a week after clinching the William Hill Premiership title on the last day of the season with a 3-1 win over long-time leaders Hearts at Celtic Park.
However, that fifth successive title win looked less likely following a 2-0 defeat at Dundee United on March 22 but Martin O’Neill, in his second spell as interim manager this season following Brendan Rodgers’ resignation and Wilfried Nancy’s sacking to end his short but damaging tenure, guided his side to nine successive victories for a stunning finale to the season.
Scales said: “It gives us that chance to go into next season on a positive note.
“The last couple of months has all gone in one direction.
“It’s been great for us, it gives us a chance to go into next season on a positive note.
“But it also gives us that realisation that we need to continue to improve and continue to be at the top of our game, to win things, because we weren’t for stages of the season, and that kind of put us in a difficult situation. So it’s a bit of both.
“You have that positivity in the group, and everyone’s buzzing, but then there’s also the sense that we need to push on again.
“We definitely made it more difficult for ourselves at times. But it’s never going to be smooth all the way through.
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“It’s about bouncing back from all those little kind of ups and downs and we managed to do that.
“I guess it’s happened in past and it’ll happen again, it’s never going to be 100 per cent smooth.
“So I think everyone can learn from mistakes and everyone’s included in that, players, coaches, board, it goes all the way up.”
Scales also looks forward to another crack at the Champions League next season.
To the frustration and anger of the Celtic support, the Hoops were knocked out of the qualifiers last August on penalties by Kairat Almaty of Kazakhstan.
The Parkhead side then exited the Europa League in the play-off stage of the knockout phase on a 4-2 defeat on aggregate by German side Stuttgart, having won three and drawing two of their eight group games.
The Irishman said: “It’s great to put ourselves in this position.
“I know we need to go and qualify next season, but we were so disappointed this year, the way it went at the start of the season.
“So I think a lot of us, the lads who were involved at the start of the year, we realise how big it is for the club to be playing in that competition and we want to put that right.”
