McGregor striving to lead Celtic through 'uphill battle'

Captain Callum McGregor is trying to protect team-mates from the "outside noise" of off-field turmoil amid a challenging period of "negativity, change and disruption" at Celtic.

The Scottish champions are going through a transitional phase on the pitch and major strife off it, although some certainty is set to come with the expected appointment of Columbus Crew's Wilfried Nancy as head coach.

Celtic, under interim boss Martin O'Neill, came close to dropping points for the fifth time in 12 Premiership games on Saturday but McGregor crashed in a brilliant 95th-minute winner to narrow the gap on Hearts to four points with a game in hand.

However, off-field rancour remains. Celtic fans have campaigned for boardroom change following slow summer transfer business and Champions League qualification failure, and an abandoned annual general meeting highlighted the depth of disagreements.

"We just need to keep going," said McGregor. "There's been a lot of negativity, change, and disruption. This club is better when everyone is together.

"Our job on the pitch is to win games of football and give the supporters a team they can be proud of.

"There are difficult moments in football. Every club goes through it. Let's not shy away from it, it's a difficult period. You have to really dig in.

"Of course you want to be flying, winning 4-0 or 5-0 every week, but it doesn't just happen like that. It's modern-day football.

"The club has been successful over a long period of time. Yes, we made mistakes, we didn't quite perform at the level to get into the Champions League. That was a big blow for everyone. The players feel it, the supporters feel it, the club feels it.

"Since then it's been a bit of an uphill battle. But we are still competing on all fronts and come the end of the season, can we make sure with all the adversity we can still have had a good season?

"That's my message to the players, the supporters, to everybody inside the club. It's step by step, just keep chipping away, because eventually it will turn for you.

"If that can be the catalyst to bring everything together then that would be great."

McGregor is doing his best to ensure the off-field negativity does not affect the squad.

"It's probably a little bit easier for the players," the 32-year-old said.

"We live in our own wee bubble anyway in terms of preparing for games. We're trying to protect that as much as we can, saying to players not to listen too much to the outside noise.

"Of course some of it filters in a little bit. But the only thing we can affect is winning games of football and if we can do that, hopefully that will realign the supporters, the team, the club, everyone moving forward.

"Because Celtic is a much stronger entity when everyone is pushing in the same direction."