Jimmy Thelin spoke to the media at Cormack Park ahead of our game against Celtic tomorrow night.

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“It’s too early for Nicky for tomorrow. Let’s see in the week, but Jack is available already. It looked bad, but that’s football sometimes. It’s settled down a little bit and we can make an assessment, the medical staff are doing a good job. So he’s ready to play.

“It is still too early to say if Nicky will be back for the weekend, so let’s see what the week gives us. The injury is around the shoulder for Nicky.

“We have a clear picture of what we want to be in the future. Now we play Celtic away. It’s a difficult game. Brendan Rodgers has done a really good job. They’re a good team. For us, to achieve what we want in the future, we need to take the challenges and grow with that, give everything we can tomorrow, and try to get the points. We know it’s going to be difficult, but we have to believe in that and try, and keep growing with these challenges.

“Celtic are always good at home. But for us, it’s more about what we want to do and how we want to grow as a team. It’s a short turnaround from the last game. We keep going with that, take the challenge we’re going to face tomorrow, and keep working on our things. We know what they’re going to do. They do it really well, and we have to be sharp and ready for the game.

“Their home record is always good. But tomorrow is one game, and we have to believe in our strengths. We know what they’re good at—their speed and combinations. But still, it’s one isolated game, and we have our strengths also. Hopefully, we can get that in good time  tomorrow, and our players can keep building on what they’ve done in the last games. It’s going to be a different game. The other games have been more about second balls and other situations. This will probably be a more open game, a different kind of game. That should be good for us to keep the tempo high and take the challenge tomorrow.

“When we had our period of (negative) results, we trained even more, pushed so hard at Cormack Park. The players worked hard in training and kept believing in things. That’s the only way to get out—keep working hard, adjust small things, and improve competition inside the squad. You have to deserve the results. When we win, I can see it on the players’ faces—all the work they’ve put in during the tough times. There’s some relief when we get the points, we’ve worked so hard for it. But we know there’s an important part of the season left. The league is really tight. Every game is going to be crucial for us to achieve our goals.

“We have to manage the squad properly with the injuries we’ve had. Dimi has leadership and presence in the box, especially in games with a lot of set plays. He did really well in the last game. Lets see who is ready tomorrow.

“It was a really good goal for Oday – he was in the right place, how he finished it, he had the awareness. That’s his strength, being in the right place inside the box. It was great for him to score such an important goal at home at Pittodrie. You want to be in the important games, home or away. The support, the tension, that’s what everyone wants—to compete in that environment. We love playing at Pittodrie, it is amazing, but our away support is always there, and the players know that. They will give everything. It’s another source of energy for us.

“We didn’t lose confidence from the Semi-final. It was a tough week. We played Rangers first, then the semi-final. That’s football sometimes—when you get a bad start, things can escalate. I can’t remember the results after that game, but I think we won. It’s always a combination of things—small situations, different squad factors, different reasons why you don’t get results. Some games were quite good but we have some goals against us. The last game was tight, and we pushed hard to win in extra time. That shows the spirit we want—to keep forcing the win and not settle for a draw. We pushed so hard in the last minute, and we got the points.

“You don’t get many chances against Celtic, so we need to be sharp and take them when they arrive. We also need to be brave, keep believing in our approach, and try to improve every time we play them.

“Every game will be so crucial now, so important. We know that, that’s a good kind of pressure because we know we have to be sharp every game. There’s no room for rest, we have to keep pushing to deserve third place.