The second half of the season is now imminent, with the visit of Hibernian at Celtic Park on Monday night, and that is when stage two of the progress report begins anew with the first game the next step in the manager’s plan for continued improvement.

He added: “I want more and I want us to be better, I want us to be stronger. And, to be fair, that would be my answer even if we were flying and everything had gone well.

‘The idea is we continually seek improvement in the way we play and in the way we develop our players, in our results – everything.’

“So, I think it’s certainly been an entertaining six months for everyone. There have been plenty of storylines and hopefully moving forward we continue our progress,

“And, as I said, the most important thing is that we vindicate the support that I’ve had and the team have had in the first six months.”

It’s not only the fans that have been backing the manager’s vision for the team, but, behind the scenes, the club under new Chief Executive, Michael Nicholson, have also been playing a high-press game.

The manager said: “I’m on record as saying I’m working really well with Michael, not just Michael, but other people on the board and within senior management, again they’ve been very supportive of me and my vision.

“Ultimately, I’m the one taking responsibility for what’s happening in the football department and for me to have the best chance of success, I couldn’t do it without that support and Michael has been integral in that.

‘Even before he became CEO we were working well together, so that’s been tremendous assistance to me and the football department.’

“And we continue to work, he’s probably in a similar boat to me in that he’s seen progress, but I’m sure that he wants to improve and he wants us to get better as a football club.

“And he’ll be working hard to do that. So far everything’s gone really well and hopefully it will continue to do so.”

THE BHOYS PREPARE FOR THE RETURN OF FOOTBALL

Great half-term report but the manager still aims higher