Why Celtic's Idah aimed 'Christmas present' jibe at Hearts

How happy are you to score two goals and do you feel that you had a good impact on the game when you came on?

Yeah, you want to make an impact. I was delighted to get the goals and three points. It was a good day overall. It’s always tough when the break comes, you have people coming off long flights and the training is probably not up to speed. In the first half, it wasn’t great, it was a bit slow. But in the second half, we came out and showed what we were all about. It turned out good.

You missed a penalty back here in March did you feel confident when running up to hit this one?

It was nice to make amends (for the pen miss in March). It was in my head when I stepped up to take the penalty. I knew I wanted to score to put it right. Thankfully I did that and I was really pleased with the two goals. To get the three points was great.

You displayed two different types of celebrations in front of the Celtic fans and Hearts supporters, was it nice to give a bit back to them?

I enjoyed it. They were giving me a bit when I was warming up so I thought I’d give a bit back. I could probably buy all my Christmas presents with the amount of coins on the pitch… but, look, it’s a bit of banter and I was happy to celebrate in front of both sets of fans.

Are you still nursing a broken nose from the Kilmarnock game?

I had a bad concussion. I think the nose is broken but I just need to wait until it settles down a bit as there is still a bit of swelling. I don’t know if I’ll get it fixed – I’m quite scared, to be honest! It’s the first time I’ve ever broken it, so it was inevitable at some point. We’ll see how it goes. I managed to avoid the black eyes but it was tough breathing and sleeping, and I was getting bad headaches but after a couple of days, it was fine.

Does the amount of travelling that some of the players have to endure during the international break affect the rhythm of the team at times?

It does have an impact. With the squad we’ve got, everyone is capable of playing their part. I think that’s why we’ve been really good this season. It doesn’t matter who starts the game, it’s about making an impact. “Saturday showed the depth again. A couple of us spoke about it the other day, you could play anyone in the squad from the start. It’s probably the best problem for a manager to have. Everyone has been fantastic. It’s so good to have that with the amount of games we have and with Europe and everything. Like I said, it’s a great problem to have.

The games are coming thick and fast now are you ready for the 'ultramarathon'?

Everyone is excited for every game. We know this period is going to be busy and we need to stick together. Everyone will be needed to play their part.

Next up for Celtic is a Champions League home game against Club Brugge, do you relish these home games?

We do relish the home games. It’s unbelievable. The first game against Bratislava was something I’ll never forget. Every time you have a Champions League game it’s really exciting – and you want to win these games. We have been really good so far so we need to keep pushing and hopefully do well.

When you look at the table Celtic are handily placed do you believe that you can qualify automatically for the knockout phase?

I’ve not looked at it. For us as a group, we’ve just taken each game as it comes. I don’t think I’ve looked at the table once – and I don’t know where we are going in. It’s about us getting as many points as we can and scoring as many goals as we can in the games. Then we’ll see where we are.

Is the key in these types of games to have no fear?

We feel we can compete with anyone - 100 per cent. The Dortmund game wasn’t the best night but before the game, we got together as a group and we had confidence we could win. That’s what this season has been about. We are not afraid to play anyone. You saw that in the RB Leipzig game. We showed what we were there to do and we feel we can go head-to-head with any team.