Cillian Sheridan will turn out against Celtic for the first time today when St Johnstone visit Celtic Park.
The 22-year-old has turned out for Motherwell, Plymouth, CSKA Sofia and St Johnstone as well as becoming a full Irish internationalist since his last Celtic appearance.
A four goal scoring burst in the autumn of 2008 failed to convince Gordon Strachan that the striker was worth retaining with Tony Mowbray also arranging loan spells for the striker.
After an adventurous season in Bulgaria and a couple of trial matches in the MSL Sheridan is looking forward to returning to a familiar scene.
“I never played Celtic when I was out on loan at St Johnstone and Motherwell because that was one of the conditions of the deals,” he explained.
“There were times when I sat in the stand and, to be honest, I preferred not to play because if I’d ended up scoring the winner against them and it cost them the league that would have been hard. When you’re on loan I think it’s best you don’t play against your club.
“It’s different this time and hopefully I’ll get picked. I’m dying to play and, if I am, I’ll be doing my best to score and help us get a result.
“The highs for me were scoring for Celtic and playing in big Champions League matches like Manchester United at Old Trafford. Everywhere you go you see someone in a Celtic jersey so just to have played a small part in their history is very satisfying.
“It was tough to get a regular game there with all the quality strikers who were at Celtic, but I made a lot of friends there and I owe the club a lot. I think everybody has special memories from their first club.”
Sheridan made his Celtic debut at Inverness in January 2007 in a side that included Neil Lennon with the Celtic boss an admirer of the young striker.
Lennon admitted: “Cillian is still a young player but when he is on form he can be unplayable at times. He can be a real handful and I think he might want to come here and prove a point.
“We felt the time was right for him to move on and he wanted to move on himself. I don’t know how things have worked out over there (Bulgaria) but he is back in Scotland and he has been on loan at St Johnstone before and had a pretty successful spell there.”
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