Celtic summer signing 'feeling a bit down' amid form slump but ace backed with defiant prediction

Celtic boss Martin O’Neill has backed Kasper Hogh to come good amid a form slump.

The big money striker signing from the summer window has not scored in a game since his August hat-trick versus Kilmarnock. He came off the bench in Sunday’s 7-1 win over Hearts, following on from a poor performance midweek in Europa League defeat to Benfica, creating an assist for the final Hoops goal scored by Benjamin Nygren. A lack of goals is starting to affect Hogh according to O’Neill but the Celtic manager is confident strikes will soon flow.

He said: “Kasper, I think I said in a little interview I did on Friday, he will score goals for us. He's just feeling a bit down. He's delighted he's made the goal, so that'll give him a bit of a lift. And yeah, sometimes it happens, but he'll just get a goal and he'll get started again.

Will Kasper Hogh score goals for Celtic?

“I think the sort of form that Camilo Duran is in at this moment, he travelled, he was desperate to play after the birth of his child. I think he saw the child for about an hour and then disappeared and wanted to come to it. So we got him there, so yeah, he wanted to play and I think that's probably his best position. But Kasper, he's a fighter and he wants to go. I think he will definitely score goals. Easier for me to say now, but he'll score goals between now and the end of the season.

On the game, O’Neill added: “I thought we played really well in the game, really well. A couple of early skirmishes around our penalty box, then we got the goal from the first real proper attack I think we had, scored from the corner and we took it on from there, so we played really well today.

“I think actually the manner in which we got through, breaking up play and getting forward, obviously finishing the chances that we had off. This time last week we created a lot of chances against Motherwell, didn't take them, today we took them and that was probably the most pleasing thing.

Celtic 7-1 Hearts assessed

“I think it was a great win, I thought the performance was great, certainly gave us confidence going into Thursday evening and maybe try and continue that on. I think some of the players getting moments as well too on the field, I think all of that there helps.

“It was a tough evening on Thursday against a very good side, but I thought the second half performance actually did give us that sort of confidence to go into the game, although did I think we were going to score seven goals? I think we were four points behind with about seven games to go last season. So it can be eroded very, very quickly.

”It is nice to win and win in the manner in which we did. From Hearts' viewpoint, probably just a bad day at the office. And they will still be challengers. They've got some really decent players who can play a bit.”

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