Guppy hopes for recall

Celtic winger Steve Guppy is keeping his fingers crossed that he gets the nod to start his first game since December 7 against St Johnstone tomorrow.

The England international has fallen behind Jamie Smith in the pecking order at Parkhead after the champions went down at Ibrox before Christmas.

Manager Martin O’Neill has shown his ruthless steak in the past by axing stars and Guppy again failed to get on in the UEFA Cup victory against Stuttgart on Thursday night.

If the situation does not improve he could have talks with his boss, but he hopes that the chance he has been waiting for will come in the Tennent’s Scottish Cup this weekend.

“Who knows what the manager will do?” conceded Guppy. “I would have thought there will be some changes considering Thursday took a lot out of the lads. Maybe I will get another chance to start on Sunday. I have kept myself fit and I am ready for it.”

Smith seized his opportunity, but he too made way for the experience of Alan Thompson in midfield for the victory over the German side.

He too will be hoping to start this weekend with O’Neill set to make changes after admitting that being dropped to the bench hurt him on Thursday.

“That would be the case for everybody,” said Smith. “But you have to get on with it.

“There’s no point letting it get to me. I could easily moan, but you’ve got to keep fighting and a chance will come again. It came before and it will come again.”

The Celtic squad will also be used to the full with so many possible big games on the horizon and Smith is relishing the punishing schedule.

He added: “If you are doing well domestically and in Europe the games are going to come like that.

“You are going to use your whole squad. It’s going to be hectic, but I’m sure we will come through it and concentrate on every game.”

Shaun Maloney is another youngster enjoying his time at Parkhead after coming into the side for Henrik Larsson and Smith is full of praise for the Scotland Under-21 star.

“I know Shaun scored an important goal,” he said. “But that’s not the major thing about his game.

“He worked his backsideholding the ball up and was passing and moving and the goal was a bonus.

“The more games you get the more confident you are at that level. It helps playing a game like that with the other boys around.

“It helps when you play or come onto a confident team because everybody around you are playing well and it lifts your own game.

“I don’t think you could fault anybody on Thursday night. Lambo and Stan did great, but everyone was brilliant.”

St Johnstone manager Billy Stark admitted that he had been trying to get his players in a positive frame of mind for the daunting trip to Parkhead.

“It’s always difficult to talk about attacking before,” he said. “We’ve been trying to get the players as positive in their minds as they possibly can be before the game.

“Nobody would expect us to go to Celtic Park and dominate the game and it would be stupid to think you could do that, but we certainly don’t intend to go and sit back.”