Joe Hart

Showed his class today. Excellent performance.

 

Showed his class tonight and why were lucky to have a keeper of his ability and leadership. No doubt , he’ll misplace a back pass next week and we’ll have the usual crew demanding he be replaced.

 

Excellent tonight. Don't get the criticism he gets for other things most goalies do poorly too.

 

Everything that Joe Hart said after Celticsecured their passage into the League Cup final by beating Kilmarnock 2-0 at Hampden Park...

How was that an occasion and an experience?

It was freezing and tough. I thought Killie did well. We weren't great but we still stuck to it.

You were a busy man and you pulled off some cracking saves didn't you?

Just a bit. In a cup competition like that and in those conditions against a team that was more than in the game is always tough.

Does it make it harder for you when the conditions are like that?

I've played in every condition and I am more used to that than the sunshine.

Does reaching a cup final ever lose its appeal?

No, never. To be honest, I don't think about cup finals it is always about the next game. I try and live in the moment and seize every opportunity that comes my way.

Is that you or the manager who thinks like that?


There is no doubt that's him (Ange Postecoglou). That's the way I have always worked and that's why I love being here. That's the message that is given out and that is music to my ears.

You had a couple of good saves one from Rory McKenzie and a reflex stop from Christian Doidge that were crucial to Celtic winning this game, weren't they?

Thank you. The way we play it was always going to be tough on a pitch like that but we were never going to back away from it. We have got to be aware that we are not going to be perfect. We try to be but Killie played well and they were on the front foot and put us under a lot of pressure and we were more than up to it. As for the saves, I will have to see them back as I just try to get in the way. They were good moments for us as a team as we defended well.




Was it one of those games because you did not get the second goal early that the longer it stays at 1-0 they have always got a chance?

Yes. They were more than in it right until the end and up until Giako knocked the second one in that was a good feeling.

Daniel Armstrong also had a chance for Killie to score was that a nervous moment for you?

He could have yes. They are just moments, aren't they? Well if they do score we just get the ball out of the net and we go again. It's the same routine when we score. That's why I love being in this team you wouldn't know what had happened in the previous action as we are only looking forward.

Is that the whole we don't stop mantra coming to the fore?

Those words were picked up on the video but that is always the message and that's how every single one of us plays.

Giorgos Giakoumakis came on and did not sulk and scored the all-important second goal which was massive for Celtic wasn't it?

Giorgos Giakoumakis's goal was huge for us. As a squad, it was an exceptional effort from every one of us. All the players are going through their own things and they have their own stuff on their plates. The moment they put that Celtic kit on they park it and get on with it. Football is a business and stuff can happen and conversations can go on but credit to this whole group because personal and football things happen but the moment we wear the Celtic badge we are all pulling in the same direction.

You have played in massive games in your career but you still relish these big games don't you?

No game is any bigger than the other. At the moment I am with Celtic and we have got a huge support and a huge following and we just try and win trophies. That is the most important game I played right now and then it will be the same on Wednesday night as well because we have a domestic league game to take care of.

Is that something that flicks your switch, playing with that constant demand and pressure to make yourself better as you need that don't you?

I love it. I have seen the lot playing in the Conference, League Two, Championship, top, middle and bottom of the English Premier League, I love everything being on the line and what a great feeling that is. I love playing football and it is exciting to be tested constantly it is not pressure. You are being asked to be at your best all the time and I am old enough to know that is impossible to be perfect all the time but you cannot let anything go or your standards slip

 

Some save from Gogic. Back on form!

 

Was very good when called upon..

 

His shot stopping is never in doubt.. top class

 

Excellent again tonight.

 

Been good last few games

 

Two very good saves. Especially the one from Gogic.

 

Two great saves but the one from Gogic was top notch.

 

Made a few really good saves last couple of games!

 

4 clean sheets in the last 5 games. This is much more like it.

 

Looks to have come out of ropey period, just hope he kicks on now. Would like to see him coming for crosses more, looks stuck to his line mostly.

 

Was watching the highlights just now and hadn't realised the performance he put in yesterday. Some big saves, could have been a very different game without them.

 

That’s awesome. That’s made me smile. That’s cool’ - Celtic’s Joe Hart enraptured by special anniversary
Take Joe Hart back to where it all began for him in the senior game and the Celtic keeper doesn’t just come over all excitable, big schoolkid. He is catapulted back to actually being an excitable, big schoolkid.




The 6ft 5ins 35-year-old proved enraptured to be alerted to the fact that this week marks precisely 20 years since, as a 6ft 3ins 15-year-old, he was named on the substitute’s bench for his local team Shrewsbury Town. Much has faded within his mind from a two-decade career that has snaffled him a raft of titles and cups. And is most readily recalled for his days with an all-conquering Manchester City and international recognition that earned him 75 England caps. Not so the backdrop to his bench appearance for Shrewsbury in their League Two encounter away to Exeter City on February 2, 2003.

“That’s awesome. That’s made me smile. That’s cool. Great stat,” he said, gushing. “With Exeter a really long way we went the day before. It was an amazing experience. I had to get special permission from the school. I wasn’t training regularly with the first team but it was needs-must. Probably a case of two injured goalkeepers … one too many for a squad the size we had. I was the next best thing and that was pretty special. I was nowhere near ready to play. Jeez, when I really think about it, it would have been frightening. Well … I don’t know. I didn’t see football as a professional game. When I was 15 and from quite a sheltered background, it was just a game of football. The more time I spent with the guys the more I realised there is a lot more to it than that. I was a naive kid just buzzing, high on life.




With it my home town, it was my Everest to be a part of my club, Shrewsbury Town. I watched a lot of the guys playing and then to be on the coach with them … Some things I’m not good with memory-wise but now you have mentioned that, it has really made me smile. Not at all [could I have envisaged what would follow]. And I’m glad I didn’t. I’m glad those weren’t my goals, I’m glad I just tried to get the best out of it that I could.”

As Hart’s focus remains to this day. The run of six clean sheets Celtic are on heading into their Perth league assignment against St Johnstone on Sunday is the longest of his two seasons with Ange Postecoglou’s side. If there was a Golden Glove award for the keeper with most league shut-outs, he would be on course for a second in Scotland to add to the four he won at City. But there isn’t, and that doesn’t seem to fuss him. He wouldn’t appear to be one of those in his trade who judges clean sheet-amassing as strikers do goal accumulation.

“I honestly don’t know what I am,” he said. “I love being fully engrossed in what my club, my team, are trying to do. Once you are in that mindset, which I am, I don’t think anything like that particularly matters. Obviously it does matter that we keep clean sheets because that means we are at nil and need only one goal to win. But I mean in terms of pats on the back, or best runs of forms and things like that. It’s just not that important when there is a bigger goal. Here you park what has happened in the previous game, so whether it is six clean sheets or none in 10, its all kind of ‘whatever’ because we have to focus on the job at the weekend.”

 

It'd be funny if his first name was Bret the Hitman.