Niall McGinn

Another goal and another assist for Niall on Sunday.

He has become the first player in the league to hit double figures for both, highlighting his importance to the side. After the game on Sunday he spoke to RedTV:

“It was a very frustrating afternoon.

“Coming in at half time we were disappointed. We showed in the last half hour what we can do. We got our heads down and made them work. Second half the boys did brilliantly but overall it was very disappointing.

“I thought second half we were excellent apart from the first five minutes when they got the goal. It was a killer them scoring so early at the break. The boys showed a lot of character to come back and if we had played on for another ten minutes or so we would have scrapped a draw or even gone on and won the game.

“The second half performance showed the spirit within the side but we need to be doing better.

“Throughout the game we created chances. Probably more than Celtic during the 90 minutes but goals win games. We need to get back to basics and stop conceding goals. We need to be hard to play against. We will also create chances but at the other end we need to keep the goals out.

“If we get clean sheets we will win games because we know we will always create chances and score goals.

“We came here to get three points and we have come up short so we are disappointed.

“We are frustrated not to take the league down to the wire but we have to be realistic. We have played some great football this season, we have had some great results as well as having some disappointments along the way.

“We feel as a team we are progressing and we are moving in the right direction.

“We now want to finish the season on a high and win our last two homes games. The fans deserve that. They have been brilliant all season. We want to return the faith they have shown in us by putting in good performances week in week out.

“We want to finish the season strongly. I want to finish the season strongly.  For me personally I have got a few goals now. I had a meeting with the manager a few weeks ago. He wanted me to get on the ball and score a few goals.

“Look back there are obviously there are results which were disappointing and jump out. The last three away games against Motherwell, Hearts and St Johnstone, if we had managed to take six points out of those games then things would have been very different after the split as things would have been a lot closer and we would still have had two homes games.

“We are happy with a lot of our performances but it is just keeping that consistency over the course of a season. Fair play to Celtic, they have done that more so than ourselves.

“Looking at the squad, we have a good squad of players but it has been a long hard season and maybe we could have done with a few more players. It is hard when you are back so early for European football and a few of the international boys like myself are away a lot so you probably need those extra players, maybe a few players on the bench who can come on and change the game. Maybe also having a few more bodies would allow the manager to rotate the squad a bit more as well so boys can get a rest when they need one. I now from speaking to the manager he is more than ready to go and bring in some new faces.

“The players we have got here are more than good enough to go and do the same again next season. We just need a few additions, especially as we are back midway through June again. It is going to be another long season.

“I will have one week off and that is it, but I would not change it for the world.”

“I will have one week off and that is it, but I would not change it for the world.”