GREG Taylor marked his first European outing for Celtic last night (Thursday) with a fine defensive display in their 3-1 win over Rennes. Better still, the tireless left-back played a big hand in Lewis Morgan’s opening goal, which the 22-year-old said came from the training ground.

With Ryan Christie occupying the right flank for the evening, James Forrest played in front of Taylor on the left. It was the former who assisted Morgan in the box, and it was the first-time through-ball that started the move to open the opposition backline.

“We’d actually worked on the move that preceded the first goal at training on Wednesday,” Taylor told the official Celtic website. “Myself, John Kennedy and Jamesy had worked on that move, where James makes the run from inside, so it was great to see it work and also to get a goal from it to open the scoring. And it was a good finish from Lewis!”

Keen to seize his Europa League opportunity, Taylor was delighted to help extend the Hoops’ current run of form, and is equally pleased to continue building relationships with his team-mates on the pitch.

With a busy fixture schedule ahead, Taylor said he and his colleagues are determined to keep the standards they’ve set rolling into December and beyond.

He added: “For us, it’s just important to keep momentum going at the moment. We’re in a great habit of winning games, important games, and you just want to keep that going. It’s easy to break that habit and it can be hard to get back on track, so we obviously don’t want give that up.

“The gaffer is big on maintaining form when you’ve found it, and I'm enjoying playing football and taking my chances whenever I get them. Over the past few weeks I’ve managed to record a good few minutes, and long may that continue.

“I’ve also enjoyed playing with Jamesy in front of me as well, and hopefully he’d say the same. We’ve got a nice relationship when he plays on my side, and hopefully we get the chance to continue build on that at times this season.”

Greg Taylor: Rennes opener was straight from the training ground