James Forrest Was “Dying” To Come Off The Bench at Hampden

Celtic winger James Forrest made a prominent impact on the Hoops’ Scottish Cup semi-final against Aberdeen on Saturday.

The wide man was brought on just after the hour mark and almost seconds after being introduced, he put the Hoops ahead.

Cutting in from the left, the veteran unleashed an accurate strike into the bottom right corner from range. It is difficult to argue with Brendan Rodgers’ assessment that he changed the Game.

Forrest’s impactful performance provides the manager with a dileMMA over whether to start him going into the final few Games of the season.

His quality is undoubted but there are concerns regarding his fitness and ability to last a decent chunk of a match.

Despite this, the 32-year-old was itching to come on at Hampden on Saturday. He is a big-Game player and has been over the course countless times with the Bhoys.

When he eventually (and rightfully) did come off the bench at the weekend, Forrest showed the likes of Yang and Luis Palma how it is done.

He said: [Scottish Cup] “Maybe people would have said Aberdeen getting that equaliser to make it three-each they would have been more confident going into the penalty shootout but I think our boys did really well with the penalties and [I’m] delighted for the big man [Joe Hart] to save the last one to win it.

“I was dying to help the team and to score. I thought that would have been the winning goal.”