CELTIC return to action this Saturday following the international break when they take on Livingston in the East End of Glasgow. The Hoops go into the game on the back of a sterling run of results since the last time the side faced the West Lothian outfit.

Since that game at the Tony Macaroni Arena, when a 10-man Celtic side lost 2-0 on the synthetic surface, Fraser Forster and his defence haven’t lost a single goal in their league outings against Ross County (6-0), Aberdeen (4-0), St Mirren (2-0) and Motherwell (2-0).

The Celts haven’t exactly been shirking elsewhere either, as they have also reached the League Cup final for the fourth year running thanks to a 5-2 win over Hibernian, and they have beaten Serie A side, Lazio 2-1 both at Celtic Park and at Rome’s Stadio Olimpico in the UEFA Europa League.

So, did the international break come at a good time or a bad time for Celtic? As far as the towering English goalkeeper is concerned, it’s still all systems go for the Hoops.

He said of the break: “We’ve had a successful period over the past couple of months, and it’s been a good chance to give some players a bit of a rest. There have been a few days off as well, just to get away for a change of scenery, so it’s been good.

“There’s been some good work as well, we’ve worked hard, the lads that have stayed behind, and we’re in a good place. The break just comes when it comes. We’re obviously in good place and on a good run. Ideally, it would be nice to keep going, but we can’t control that.

“It’s come at a good time in a way to give the lads a bit of a break as well, so I think everyone’s refreshed, looking forward to the weekend now and getting back at it.”

Forster and his team-mates will be going all-out to add to that clean-sheet run in the league on Saturday - with the caveat of adding more goals at the other end of the pitch.

The keeper said: “It’s always nice to keep more clean sheets. We’re proud of how we’ve been playing, especially over the last month with the results that we’ve had. But, it’s early doors in the season and now we’ve just got to look forward to this next chunk of games between now and the winter break.

“We need to get off to a good start on Saturday. Every chunk of the season is important for different reasons but we just concentrate on ourselves. We need to play well and keep picking up the results and perform as well as we have done.

“We want to keep winning in the league, win our Europa League group and we’ve got a cup final to look forward to as well. We’re not looking too far ahead, we’re just looking at it game by game and we’ll see what happens.”

Forster hoping for festival of football as Celts return to SPFL duty