Aiden McGeady vows to stay cool in midst of Celtic Park cauldron

Former Celtic star Aiden McGeady says he is unconcerned by being a target for home fans at tomorrow night's game in Glasgow but the 28-year-old admits he has a pretty good idea what's in store for him at his former stomping ground.

"If you break it down and think about, it it's just another game of football, isn't it," the midfielder told FAI TV.

“That’s the way I look at it. Obviously there is all the other things, people coming out in the press and saying their bit about myself and James getting booed or whatever, but that’s part and parcel of football; it’s going to happen. All I have to do going into the game is try to play the way I can and help the team get a positive result.

Emotional bond

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Celtic Park

, ” he says, “is where I grew up playing. I’ve played the majority of my career there. It’s a place that I’ve got a big emotional bond with. Hopefully it can carry on on Friday.

"It' going to be good going back. Playing for Ireland against Scotland should be a good atmosphere.

“When I was at Spartak [Moscow], we played Celtic in the Champions League so I know what it’s like to be on the away team at Celtic Park.

“It will be different [this time] because it’s a Scottish home game and the majority of the crowd will be Scottish [but] I think it will be a really good atmosphere: two good teams, probably quite similar in terms of where we are at in terms of progress and development. Quite similarly matched, most players playing in England; pretty similar ages, similar levels – interesting.”

No more important

The game he says is no more important to Ireland now, he feels, than when the fixtures were announced in Nice back in February, but he admits it would still be good to build on positive away results in Georgia and Germany.

“I don’t think this game has any more significance than any other game because of the way we started. We obviously know Scotland and Poland will be our closest challengers for that second place. But if we can continue playing like we have done, get a good result – which could be a draw, it could be a win – it would be fantastic to continue that momentum we’ve got so far. Hey, we’ll see how it goes.”