Capital Gains

Callum McGregor is looking forward to returning to the stadium where he made his home debut for Celtic

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MURRAYFIELD is synonymous with rugby rather than football, but for Callum McGregor the stadium will always hold added significance. His ‘home’ debut for Celtic was at the 67,000-seater arena, and now the Hoops midfielder is preparing to return to a place which holds special memories for him.

McGregor came through the Celtic Academy system and for years dreamed of one day making it to the stage where we would have the opportunity to pull on the Hoops and play in front of a packed Paradise.

After progressing through the ranks and impressing during a season-long loan spell at Notts County, McGregor was promoted into Ronny Deila squad at the start of the 2014/15 season. His home debut came against a slightly different backdrop but he excelled nonetheless and has never looked back since.

This weekend’s League Cup semi-final against Hearts at Murrayfield will see the 25-year-old return to the Edinburgh stadium where he made his first appearance for Celtic in Scotland. That came in the second leg of the second qualifying round of the UEFA Champions League against Icelandic side KR Reykjavík, with McGregor having scored on his first-team debut a week earlier in Iceland.

“I made my debut for Celtic in the away leg against KR Reykjavík and scored the only goal of the game,” McGregor told the Celtic View. “The return leg was my second game and it was technically my home debut for Celtic, even though it was at Murrayfield. It was because of the Commonwealth Games that we weren’t able to play at home.

“I remember it being a good game at Murrayfield. The stadium was nice and the pitch was decent too. We won the first game so we were favourites to go through and we ended up winning the second leg 4-0. I set up the first one in the second leg so I was off to a good start in the senior side, having scored the winning goal on my debut.”