It’s been a week of contrasting emotions for the Celtic squad, going from the delight of winning the League Cup at Hampden last weekend to the midweek disappointment of a goal-less draw away to St Mirren.

Now, as the team prepare for their final game of 2021 – a trip to McDiarmid Park to play St Johnstone on Boxing Day – there is a determination within the camp to sign off with a win before the extended winter break kicks off.

Speaking ahead of the game in Perth, Callum McGregor said: “In football, if you ever need a reminder of what the game can do, that was it the other night – you go from Sunday to that.

“We know exactly where we are as a group and where we want to get to, but there’s still a lot of work to do to get there.

'We can’t get too carried away and focus on the one result. We’ve been winning games for a long time now and we’ve been consistent over a period of time.'

“We’ve been looking like the team we want to be. We want to add a bit of quality to that in the moments we need, but it’s been a good body of work over the period so far, in terms of where we started to where we are.

“We just need to stay calm and stay focused.”

Ange Postecoglou’s side have also had to contend with a number of injuries during a busy fixture schedule, with several key players absent on Wednesday night.

But regardless of who is selected to play, Callum McGregor knows the responsibility is always to go out and try to win the game.

“When someone gets injured, it’s an opportunity for other players,” the Celtic captain said. “That’s the way we have to look at it.

“Losing quality players does affect you and what you are trying to do, but we don’t want to go down the road of making excuses.

“We’ll dust ourselves down. It was obviously a disappointing result but psychologically it doesn’t change anything too much.

“We still want to go out on a high and then we know how important the games are when we start back.”

Callum McGregor: We want to sign off 2021 with a win