{"id":905594,"date":"2026-04-19T23:00:26","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T23:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/905594\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T23:00:26","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T23:00:26","slug":"anthony-ralston-in-honest-celtic-confession-as-he-puts-scotland-world-cup-talk-on-hold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/905594\/","title":{"rendered":"Anthony Ralston in honest Celtic confession as he puts Scotland World Cup talk on hold"},"content":{"rendered":"

The full back netted a stunner in the 6-2 hammering of St Mirren that booked Celts’ Scottish Cup final place<\/p>\n

Celtic’s Anthony Ralston celebrates scoring to make it 2-0<\/p>\n

Anthony Ralston is determined to get his passport stamped for America in the coming weeks \u2013 and have some extra silverware packed in his luggage.<\/p>\n

The Celtic<\/a> hero has been a Steve Clarke stalwart over the years and his seat on the World Cup <\/a>plane is all but nailed on no matter what happens between now and the big kick-off.<\/p>\n

But the humble Hoops hero is taking nothing for granted and he\u2019s determined to deliver success for Celts and make sure he\u2019s heading over the Atlantic.<\/p>\n

Ralston\u2019s Parkhead career has had plenty of ups and downs and he\u2019s had a tough time of it in periods this term when he\u2019s fallen down the pecking order.<\/p>\n

Once again though he stepped up when Celtic needed him most \u2013 producing a barnstorming performance capped by a sensational goal in an incredible 6-2 Scottish Cup semi-final extra-time win against St Mirren<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s got him a step closer to his dream of adding to his 14 winners\u2019 gongs and then heading across the pond.<\/p>\n

Ralston<\/a> said: \u201cThat\u2019s always my mentality, I don\u2019t take anything for granted. Football is a crazy game, you know, and that\u2019s why days like today I need to keep taking my opportunities.<\/p>\n

\u201cI need to keep proving myself to, to hopefully get in that squad. Obviously that\u2019s my, that\u2019s my aim, as well as obviously gaining success and winning trophies with Celtic.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got a lot that keeps me going and a lot that drives me every day to be at my best. That\u2019s the aim for everyone. Everybody\u2019s collective here, you know, we\u2019re all hungry, we\u2019ve all got the desire.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know it\u2019s been a tough season, but there\u2019d be nothing better than to go and get the Double. So that\u2019s what our main aim is going to be now.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose things can lead to another. But that\u2019s for later down the line. I\u2019ve got enough on my plate now to try and win more, so I\u2019m going to keep trying my best to win more trophies at Celtic, you know, going into the end of the season, and also be successful internationally as well. I\u2019ve got a lot to keep me going between now and then.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ralston can get a raw deal at times but rarely lets his side down. The full-back sometimes slips back into the shadows at Celtic but he\u2019s ready to shine whenever the call comes and there\u2019s never any trace of a player going in a huff.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Celtic’s Anthony Ralston celebrates after scoring to make it 2-0<\/p>\n

Ralston said: \u201cFirst and foremost and most important thing was I\u2019m glad I was able to help the team. But then there is a bit of a personal reward in the sense of getting a goal kind of makes it worth all the hard work you put in when things maybe aren\u2019t going the way you want them.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, I\u2019m delighted overall. I think I\u2019ve gained experience over the years. I\u2019m not getting any younger and I know I\u2019m not exactly old, but I\u2019ve been around for quite a long time now.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been around the success and had great role models kind of come through and none of them ever chucked it or gave up in training sessions or anything like that.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike I said, I\u2019d only be letting myself down, my family down, if I was going to not be professional and not do the work.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the same for all the other boys in there because football\u2019s an up and down game. When it all comes together in moments like today it makes it all worth it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s my kind of drive is to not let anyone down, myself and anything like that. That\u2019s just what keeps me going and keeps me in a good place to be able to perform.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ralston has enjoyed several sparking moments for Celts but his goal against Saints \u2013 to put his side 2-0 up before half-time \u2013 might be the pick of the lot.<\/p>\n

Celtic didn\u2019t half make it hard before getting the job done but the full-back has a moment to savour \u2013 and to show his six year-old daughter Mila on repeat.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cI\u2019m definitely happy to get my goal and contribute to the team. I\u2019ve seen it back now, I\u2019m happy with it. It was good!<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Celtic’s Anthony Ralston celebrates with Yang Hyun-Jun after scoring to make it 2-0<\/p>\n

\u201cYang\u2019s done well. I gave him a shout and I was behind him.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe laid it off and initially in my mind I was going to cross it, but then I thought I\u2019d just have a hit.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just about trying to get as clean a strike as possible across the goal, although it was maybe not as close to the crossbar!<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d not scored at Hampden before so it was an incredible feeling. It\u2019s one for me and my family to look back on in years to come.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut for the here and now, I\u2019m just happy I was able to contribute to the team in the end and get a positive result.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy daughter wasn\u2019t there but I\u2019m sure I\u2019ll get it up on YouTube for her so she can have a look at it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn terms of the way the game went, we could have obviously shut it out better, that is the truth.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut in the end, the mentality we\u2019ve shown all through the years we had to show it again and in abundance to get the job done.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The full back netted a stunner in the 6-2 hammering of St Mirren that booked Celts’ Scottish Cup…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":905595,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5009],"tags":[130637,748,2628,4884,712,13315,2630,1638,21841,70571,16,15,1514,93214,1737],"class_list":["post-905594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scotland","tag-anthony-ralston","tag-britain","tag-celtic-fc","tag-great-britain","tag-scotland","tag-scotland-football-team","tag-scottish-cup","tag-scottish-premiership","tag-st-mirren-fc","tag-steve-clarke","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-world-cup","tag-world-cup-2026","tag-youtube"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116433861596759888","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/905594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=905594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/905594\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/905595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=905594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=905594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=905594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}