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Adam Idah insists Celtic can handle pressure of Rangers title race

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Adam Idah knew Celtic had a history of scoring crucial late goals. In fact, ahead of his late heroics to claim a vital victory over Motherwell, Brendan Rodgers’ squad had watched clips of Matt O’Riley’s 96th-minute winner at Fir Park in September.

Similarly, Idah – who joined on loan from Norwich in January – never had any expectation other than mountainous pressure on his shoulders as he moved to Glasgow.

The striker already had the knowledge that second place was unthinkable for Parkhead supporters, and he’s confident he and his team-mates will thrive in a shoot-out title race against Rangers.

“I’m aware of Celtic and late goals,” said Idah who scored a late brace to keep Celtic within two points of Rangers at the Scottish Premiership summit.  “We actually watched the clips before the game of Matty O’Riley scoring at Motherwell in the 96th minute.

“But it’s just that attitude of never giving up. I could see it as soon as I came in. Everyone is so hard working in training, so professional.

“You see it in the games. They never give up, everyone is willing to put in that extra percent to get results. You saw that on Sunday and it turned out well.

“Look, there’s always going to be pressure going into any game. There’s always pressure at Celtic because it’s such a big club and the demands on everyone are huge.

“I think for us players, you need pressure. It can be tough at times but we are all experienced enough to deal with that pressure and keep going.

“Would we rather it was more straightforward? Of course, you want that in every game.

“But these things happen. You go 1-0 down and it’s to show that mentality and attitude to turn it around.

“We did that on Sunday. Look, not every game is going to be easy. You are not going to be four or five up every week.

“That’s football and you need to grind it out to the very last whistle.”

Idah is one of the newest recruits under Rodgers but he has quickly adopted a united attitude with his team-mates in Glasgow.

The Republic of Ireland international is aware of the expectation at Celtic and is not ignorant to the growing hysteria at the punch-by-punch nature of the title challenge.

However, Idah insists discussions on pressure at Celtic don’t extend beyond the training ground at Lennoxtown – and being written off in some quarters after sacrificing a seven-point lead in the league doesn’t even factor into his motivation.

“People know there is pressure around the place. We’ve spoken about it in training,” admitted Idah.

“It’s just dealing with it. It can be tough at times, but we are old and experienced enough to put that behind us.

“We have to stick together – we are a team. That last 20 or 30 minutes are what we are capable of.

“What we need to understand is we need to do it consistently in every game and not just in the second half. It has to be from the first minute to the very end.

“You take the positives from the game. We’ll look back at what went wrong but have to look back at the positives to take into the next game and make sure we are consistent.”

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