THREE days after making club history, Celtic return to league duties tomorrow (Sunday) to face Ross County in Dingwall. James Forrest was delighted with the Hoops' UEFA Europa League heroics in midweek, but said he and his team-mates’ focus now lies square on domestic football.

The 28-year-old winger added another assist to his name on Thursday evening – Forrest now has 13 goals and 13 assists so far this campaign – when his inch-perfect cut-back helped Lewis Morgan open the scoring. The Scottish champions went on to win 3-1, securing top spot in Group E and accruing more than 10 points - both firsts in the club’s modern European competition history.

“The Rennes game was class and another good European night at Celtic Park,” said Forrest. “To win three games at home is a massive achievement, and it’s a great feeling to do that for the fans and for us as players.

“The last few years have been incredible domestically, but we’ve also qualified for Europe after Christmas three times in a row, and it’s important for us to remember that. It’s always been good, but the way in which we’ve done it this year has been at another level again.

“It’s exciting. We’ll play to win in Cluj, but it’s a nice position to be in, where we can look forward to the draw with a game to go, top of the table. We’ll now turn our attention to Ross County on Sunday, and then we’ve got a couple of games after that, including a cup final, before we play Cluj over there. By the time that game comes around, the manager will decide what he wants to do and how he wants to set us up.”

Having already qualified for the knockout stages of the tournament before Thursday’s match, Forrest explained there was scope for the Hoops to go in unfocused. Instead, manager Neil Lennon and his backroom staff ensured this wasn’t the case, which the winger reckons bodes well for a busy December ahead.

Forrest has enjoyed the partnership he and Greg Taylor have shared recently at Scotland and at club level, and was especially pleased with the performances of goalscorer Morgan and stopper Fraser Forster against the French Cup holders.

He added: “I’ve played with Greg a few times in the national team as well, so we’ve already got a good understanding of each other’s style of play. It’s always good forming different relationships with different players, and against Rennes I think Greg and myself were able to show that.

“For the first goal, we played some really good stuff down the left side, and of course it’s a great finish from Morgie. He put in a great shift – he played up front in a European game for Celtic at Celtic Park and did really well. That’s great for him, and I’m really pleased for him as well.

“At the other end, Fraser was brilliant and probably deserved the clean sheet after a few tremendous saves over the course of the game. He’ll be a bit gutted missing out on the clean sheet, that’s what he’s like and that’s credit to his character, but to be fair, there was nothing he could do about the goal.

“December is always really busy, but we’ve got the squad to cope with the busy schedule. As you saw against Rennes, we had a few players who haven’t been playing every week come into the starting XI and perform really well. That’s brilliant for everyone that’s playing every week, and for the other guys waiting to come in as well – to see guys hitting the ground running without much notice.”

Forrest: We love making history but now we focus on Ross County