LAST month, the Celtic Women’s team followed last season’s 4-1 defeat of Glasgow City with an equally impressive 2-1 home win over the 13-in-a-row league holders.

Captain Kelly Clark’s last-gasp strike sealed three points at K-Park on the opening day of the SPWL 1 calendar, which Fran Alonso’s side followed with a confident 4-1 victory over Spartans in the League Cup. German striker, Josi Giard made substitute appearances in both games, and now targets goals in the games ahead – the first of which comes against Hearts in the league this Sunday.

Signed in early 2018, 23-year-old Giard had considered returning home to Germany at the start of this year, but just couldn’t turn down the chance to turn professional in Glasgow’s green and white. This week’s Celtic View caught up with Giard to talk about just that, starting the season in style, and pushing for trophies between now and the end of the season.

YOU CAME ON AS A SUB IN THAT GLASGOW CITY WIN. WHAT WAS THAT LIKE?
The Glasgow City game was brilliant. You can’t really have a better start to a season than that kind of game. Not only getting the win against a top side, but winning in that fashion is even more exciting. I wasn’t too nervous before coming on. I didn’t have too much time to think about it either. Obviously, when you’re on the bench, you know there’s a chance you’ll be used, but you also don’t know how the game is going to unfold. A minute or two before I actually went on, 66 minutes or thereabouts, I was told to get stripped and get ready to go. Whenever the team is playing well, it’s always easier to get on and slot into that style of play. Above all, I was pleased to get involved and have the chance to try my best and give it my all. For me, the main thing in my mind was to make sure we didn’t lose the game. To get back on level terms so quickly after conceding was important, but it was crucial that we didn’t switch off at the back when we were looking for a winner at the other end of the pitch. The longer the half went on, we realised there was a chance we could get more from the game, but still didn’t expect that to be with the last kick of the ball.

WHAT WAS IT LIKE WHEN KELLY CLARK HIT THE WINNER IN INJURY TIME?
It was brilliant! When Kelly scored, I was just like, ‘Oh, yes!’ I just started running towards her to celebrate with her. I was totally delighted. At the time, I was stuck behind the three players the ball went through, so when Kelly hit it, I was like, okay, just please go in. It did, and we were over the moon with that. It was absolutely brilliant. We carried that feeling into the dressing room as well, it was a brilliant feeling. It’s funny, because it’s so early in the season and it’s only one game, but at the same time we were ecstatic. At that point we wanted the next game to come straight after that one.

AND NOW YOU FACE HEARTS IN THE LEAGUE THIS WEEKEND?
That’s right. We’ll go into the Hearts game this weekend with a lot of confidence, and we’ll go into the game aiming to win and win well. We’ll do whatever we can to make that happen, and this will be the first time I’ve played against Hearts, so I’m looking forward to experiencing that on a personal level as well.

ANY PERSONAL TARGETS THIS SEASON?
As for the season ahead generally, I’d love to continue to score more goals. I like to keep an eye on my stats, and at the moment, I’m essentially scoring in every second game. I’d like to improve that and keep my stats climbing. I think it’s difficult to say before games that you’re going to score, but you always enter every game with the hope of scoring or assisting for your team-mates.

For the full interview with Josi Giard, see this week’s Celtic View, out now.

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Josi Giard and team-mates set for Hearts this weekend