Celtic savour their good Fortune
Saturday December 19 2009
Celtic go into their SPL match against Hearts tomorrow, with coach Peter Grant having saluted the character of Marc-Antoine Fortune after the striker put in extra work to add goals to his all-round play.
Fortune netted a double in Thursday night's 3-3 Europa League draw against Rapid Vienna, five days after bagging his first goal since August when he lashed home a spectacular winner at Motherwell.
Despite missing two months with a knee injury, the £3.8m summer signing had endured widespread criticism for his lack of goals.
Celtic manager Tony Mowbray has always stressed Fortune offers more creating moves than finishing them off, but Grant revealed the striker has been putting in extra shooting practice in a bid to stave off the criticism.
Grant worked closely with Fortune at West Brom during the second half of last season after Mowbray took him to the Hawthorns on loan, and he was always confident Celtic had captured a quality signing.
"I thought he was excellent again," Grant said."He led the line very well, he got his goals."
"The great thing about him is that he has shown great character.
"Yes, he has been getting criticism. He understands that when you play for this club, when you are a striker, you are expected to score goals.
"But the one thing he has done, he has battled away. In training every day he has asked to do extra finishing work. He is not hiding the fact that has to be better."
"We have always said we felt the team would score more goals with Marco in it.
Grant added: "Marco is not a Frank McAvennie, Charlie Nicholas, Brian McClair-type who is going to score 30 goals a season, but he brings a hell of a lot of different things to your team."
Hearts v Celtic
Live, ESPN, Tomorrow 12.0
- Gavin McCafferty
Irish Independent
