Hooper: Bhoys must go on a run

Celtic striker Gary Hooper has targeted a winning run to make up for their Old Firm defeat. Hooper helped Celtic bounce back from last weekend's Ibrox loss when his early goal set them on their way to a 2-0 Scottish Communities League Cup win over Ross County at a rain-soaked Dingwall.Rangers later lost at Falkirk to make Celtic favourites for the trophy, but the Hoops still trail their rivals by four points in the Scottish Premier League.Manager Neil Lennon described their win at Victoria Park merely as a "small step in the right direction" after being angered by his players' second-half collapse at Ibrox as they threw away a lead to lose 4-2.Celtic next host Inverness on Saturday and Hooper said: "We have to make it up to him (Lennon) by winning games like we did on Wednesday night."We've got to keep winning games, getting clean sheets and scoring goals."The gaffer can't ask for much more, well that's what he asked for."Wednesday night was a good response, we played really well under the conditions."We had to start well, press them and get an early goal, which we did. We settled down and passed it, it was a nice pitch to play on, and I thought it was a good, solid performance."They came at us, I thought they were a good team, they passed it well. But we stepped it up."I'm used to that sort of ground from my non-league days. Some of the lads aren't but they dealt with it well."We had to step it up after Sunday. It was a good response, a clean sheet and we dealt with coming to a hard place."Lennon and his players were hit with a wave of criticism after Sunday and Hooper admits all they can do is respond on the pitch."It's very tough but we had a good game to get it out of our minds, to start winning again," he said."We have another big game on Saturday, so the games are coming thick and fast, so it's all about recovering and winning again."Last season we lost the first Old Firm game and we kicked on from that."Celtic exorcised some demons on Wednesday by beating the team that knocked them out of the 2010 Scottish Cup and they have another score to settle on Saturday.Inverness effectively ended Celtic's title challenge last season with a 3-2 win in May.Hooper said: "If we play like we did on Wednesday, press them high and keep solid everywhere, we can score goals at home."I think it will be a good game, hopefully a full crowd with the fans behind us again, and we can start winning again."

Source: Team_Talk