Sam Johnstone makes huge Ibrox confession

Sam Johnstone has admitted that he wasn’t ready or prepared for playing at Ibrox on September 13.

The Wolves ‘keeper joined Celtic on loan at the start of September then made his debut away to St Johnstone on September 9.

Four days later Celtic were at Ibrox in a League Cup quarter-final.

Back in March Vil Sinisalo was thrown into a double header at Ibrox and emerged with credit.

The Finnish keeper came to the rescue last season after Kasper Schmeichel’s injury issues caught up with him.

Celtic were expected to sign a goalkeeper during the close season but started with Ross Doohan as No 2 keeper.

Johnstone was brought in just ahead of the transfer window closing, within a fortnight he found himself walking out at Ibrox into a cauldron of racism and hate.

Looking back at that experience The Sun reports Johnstone saying:

I don’t think anyone can prepare you for that game (Rangers), especially away with no away fans.

It was a tough one because of the result and the size of the game.

I’ve never experienced anything like that before in my career. It was great to play in, but the result hurt us.

I don’t think anything can prepare you for those games until you play in them.

Listen, I’ll never turn down playing. When someone asks me if I want to play, it’s not in my nature to be saying it’s a tough game or it’s a big game. My mentality is to play and to do my best.

Like I said, that result was tough, but we move on and that’s football.

WHY WAS JOHNSTONE PUSHED INTO THAT FIXTURE?

Celtic lost 3-0 and while Johnstone wasn’t directly at fault for any of the goals his nervy performance set the tone for the match.

In truth Celtic were never really competitive or a threat in the match.

There was no need for O’Neill to pitch a newcomer into that fixture so soon after joining Celtic.

Sitting on the bench watching Sinisalo would have been educational for Johnstone, finding out the depth of hatred that exists in Scottish football.

O’Neill justified the selection by explaining that he wanted his on loan goalkeeper to  experience the Derby fixture.

After Ibrox Sinisalo returned for five matches then was dropped following the 7-1 win over Hearts.

It looks like O’Neill is determined to make Johnstone his first choice keeper which gives Celtic an end of season goalkeeping problem.

Johnstone will return to his EPL wages contract at Wolves while Sinisalo may look to move on after being dumped for an on loan competitor that wasn’t ready for the biggest fixture in Celtic’s season.