Kelechi Iheanacho admitted even he does not fully know how he handled the pressure after firing Celtic back into the Premiership title race with a stoppage-time penalty at Fir Park.
The striker stepped forward in the 98th minute with everything hanging on one kick.
Celtic had thrown away a second-half lead after Liam Gordon’s late equaliser for Motherwell and another dropped result looked set to hand Hearts a huge advantage before Saturday’s final day clash at Celtic Park. Instead, Auston Trusty won a penalty deep into added time and Iheanacho took responsibility.
He never looked away from the ball.
The striker drilled his effort low into the corner before sprinting away toward the travelling support as Celtic players and staff emptied onto the pitch around him.
It was one of the biggest moments of Celtic’s season.
The result means Martin O’Neill’s side now head into Saturday one point behind Hearts knowing a win at Celtic Park would deliver the league title. A draw will not be enough because of Hearts’ superior goal difference after their 3-0 victory over Falkirk.
Iheanacho spoke honestly after full-time about the pressure surrounding the penalty and what was going through his head before the kick.
He said: (Sky Sports), “To be fair, I don’t have words and I don’t know how I did that but we’ve done it.
“As you can see the fans are still shouting and we’re happy.
“Once we have one more to go we need to just get back now and focus on that one.
“I think first of all I just remember that I’ve thought this type of thing before and I just kept cool and brave.
“It’s scary to be fair but I don’t know what I was thinking.
“Thank God we got the win today so we’re happy.”
Callum McGregor has lived through almost every kind of title race and pressure moment at Celtic, but even he knew the scale of what had just happened at Fir Park.
He said: “Yeah, nothing bigger than that, that’s huge.
“He’s got a special character to take the penalty under that pressure.
“The team were again working so, so hard and you just think it’s going to go away from you.
“But with this team, so many times, how many goals have we scored in the last minute and sometimes you need things to drop for you if you want to win titles.
“We know our job. Win the game, we win the league.”
Everything now points toward Saturday.
After weeks where the title looked to be slipping away, Celtic suddenly have one final chance to take it back on their own ground.
Check your maths….”Hearts’ superior goal difference” is now irrelevant…a draw would give the Diet Huns the title by one point.