Matt O'Riley explains why he signed new Celtic deal

Matt, was that your favourite goal for Celtic?

Yeah, I think so. A really cool moment, and very special to be a part of it with the fans at the end as well, quite surreal, and I'm still taking it in right now. Yeah, it felt good.

Your manager just came in and said that that’s just the way Celtic are, by scoring late goals and coming back. Do you feel like that epitomises the club?

Definitely, yeah that makes sense. In my time here, we've scored an abundance of late goals, especially in games where we’ve dominated the ball and kept probing and kept believing that the chance will come. Fortunately, it did today as well.

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When you go 1-1 in the 95th minute, do you still believe that you could go on and win that game?

Yeah, the first thing I did was just ask the ref how long we've got left, and he said two minutes, and I knew in my head that was enough time to generate at least one more chance. It's what happened, and then they managed to get the ball in our box after we scored as well, so I think in those games you never know how much time gets added, so you keep believing that you’ll get a chance.

The manager said that you weren’t just lumping it into the box, and said it was a testament to the players that you were still trying to carefully work a chance, and eventually it happened?

Yeah, we've got an identity which we try to stick to, and I think if you’ve got this kind of process of the way you want to play, then eventually things kind of just work out to an extent. The more you keep probing, eventually they’ll lose a bit of focus and get tired. I think that’s what happened.

And credit to you for the composure, as the cross was coming in you would have been fully aware that you were unmarked. All of the emotion of everything, and you still calmed yourself under pressure?

Yeah, there wasn’t too much going through my head from what I can remember, trying to think back on it now. My mind was pretty clear and I knew what I had to do in that moment, it was just about executing it, and I did.

Was that the perfect way to celebrate the announcement of the new deal, and was fate maybe involved with it?

Yeah, I don’t know about fate, but it was a cool way to wrap up a new contract. My time here has been really good so far, and hopefully, I am able to continue that now and keep pushing on.

Is it feelings like that today – and those scenes at the end – and that emotion, was that the reason that persuaded you to sign a new deal?

I always wanted to, if I'm being completely honest - before today - but being able to do it in front of fans that are that crazy is just really, really special. The amount of kisses I got from men was a bit absurd. I somewhat enjoyed it, which was strange. No, it was cool.

What is about the club that makes it the perfect place for you to develop over the next few years?

I think, first of all, the culture we've got going on. It's a nice environment to be around. For me, it's very easy to come to work and just enjoy my football. Second of all, we've got crazy fans, who just love football. Everyone’s just really together in the whole city, and probably elsewhere in the whole world. I don’t think as a player you get many chances to be involved with a club that has a fanbase like this. So, I'm cherishing and embracing that as it's really important to me, and I'm trying my best to do that at the moment.

It's a remarkable amount of players that have signed new contracts in little over two months. Do you think that’s a statement as well, with where the players feel the club is at the moment?

I think so, yeah. Obviously, we lost a couple of important players in the summer, but when you tie down some of your core players in the team, I think it's a real statement of intent and it probably puts a bit of calmness around everyone’s heads, both fans and players as well. It settles things down and gets us focused on our business now.

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How good is it for you also that you’ve got a manager who really seems to believe in you and sees a path for you to progress as well?

Yeah, of course, that’s nice. Just being given the opportunity in every game – I'm very grateful. The more time I'm on the pitch, the more chances I've got to pop up with moments like these. Today happened to be the 97th minute, and if I wasn’t on the pitch then I wouldn’t be able to do that, so I'm grateful for the faith that he’s shown in me right now.

You're starting to put Kyogo under pressure with your goals?

There’s only one Kyogo, don’t worry about that!

You’ve already got more than what you managed last season, do you think there's more goals to come from you? Double figures?

Yeah, you'd like to think so. I'm not setting any specific targets. I think I'm just resetting each game and trying to do my best for the club, and I'll continue to keep doing that.