ALBIAN Ajeti didn’t take long to settle into life as a Celt, and the Hoops striker showed that in only his second game when he came off the bench to score the decisive goal in Celtic’s 1-0 win away to Dundee United.

The Swiss striker has since scored five goals – most recent against Saturday’s opponents, Hibernian – as well as contributing two assists in his nine appearances in the league, five of which have come as a substitute.

And even when he hasn’t got on the score-sheet he has played a significant role in allowing his team-mates goalscoring opportunities with assists, clever runs and neat passing.

He said his instincts have played a key role in his performances and added his experience and strength and conditioning work have helped him be more of a threat in the box.

“It didn’t take me long to understand the way we play,” said the 23-year-old. “In most of the games, we’re pressing high up the pitch and working to create chances. There are many different ways to attack and score goals and I understand that approach so I felt comfortable in the team right away.

'I’m happy I’ve been able to help the team and I’m looking forward to helping them even more.'

“Some of the things are natural. You smell it in the air that the ball might fall in a certain place and you make a move. You have to be ready and focused to make the most of the chances. You learn from playing games as well so the experience is important too. There’s a lot more to it than that.

“I’ve been working on my body to start strong and with the years of experience you know how to use your body and that’s quite important.”

Despite his impressive goal return so early in his Celtic career, Ajeti admitted he is rarely satisfied with his contributions and has an insatiable hunger for goals and assists.

“The players in the team know me better now and they know I’m very hungry and very ambitious to score more, assist more and work more,” said Ajeti. “It’s what I love to do, it’s my passion.

“I should try to not let it bother me because you can’t score in every game but I have that much fire in myself that I want to score in every game. If I play 60 minutes or 90 minutes I say to myself, I had 60 minutes or 90 minutes to score a goal and I didn’t.

“This is just my mentality and it might look sometimes like I’m frustrated but this isn’t frustration at the gaffer or anyone, it’s just me frustrated that I didn’t meet my own standards. The gaffer understands this because we’ve talked, he knows me and knows I love scoring goals.

'I feel I can be important for the team in link-up and hold-up play. I didn’t score in the last game but I got a couple of assists, which was very important.'

Ajeti’s next chance to add to his goal tally will be this weekend at Easter Road when Celtic take on Hibernian.

The last time the teams met was back in September when Ajeti scored Celtic’s second goal in an impressive 3-0 victory. And he is hopeful of building on his record and the performance Celtic put on in their 4-1 win against Motherwell in the most recent game.

“We played well in the last match against Hibernian and we’ll be confident of putting on a good performance again,” said Ajeti. “The only thing is, I want to play for longer than 30 minutes and not get injured.

“We need to win this game and build on the performance we had before the international break against Motherwell. We need to focus on the high pressure, the runs and the intensity. We’ll be well prepared for that game and we’ll go three to get the three points.”

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Ajeti has his sights sets on capital gains in his goals tally