CRAIG GORDON today warned his Celtic team-mates they need to rid themselves of any lingering hangover before they set out on the road to Aberdeen this weekend.

Ronny Deila's men clinched the league without kicking a ball last Saturday, but Gordon, like his manager Ronny Deila, wants to head to Pittodrie on Sunday and put in the kind of performance that underlines Celtic's championship credentials.

However, there has been ill-feeling among the Dons squad throughout the campaign towards Celtic, and comments from Kris Commons last week regarding a perceived lack of any title challenge from Derek McInnes' side were branded "disrespectful" by Shay Logan.

Gordon, therefore, believes Aberdeen will be fired up to prove a point to Celtic on Sunday and, while the outcome itself may well be redundant in terms of influence, the shotstopper does not want the campaign to end meekly now the title has been won.

"We have to earn the points," he said. "We have done well in the three games we have played them so far and it is three wins out of three, which has been pivotal in the race for the title - but there are no guarantees we can go there and do that again.

"It was very close up there the last time and one or two things could have gone either way. It took a last-minute goal from a set-piece for us to get the win and it turned out to be a really significant afternoon for us.

"But they will be playing for pride. By no means are we thinking we just need to turn up to win the game. We want to keep the form going until the last day of the season and we don't want to take our foot off the gas now.

"We were excellent last Friday in the 5-0 win over Dundee, and it is important that we try to finish the season as strongly as possible now."

For Gordon himself, the chance to play out the remaining games of the season as a league winner is something he would scarcely have imagined just a short time ago.

Having been out of the game for two years because of serious injury problems, he has returned to feature at the top level again, with domestic honours and international recognition the rewards for his dogged determination to get back to the top level.

He has played 52 competitive games this season, a remarkable return given the problems that have beset him throughout his career, and he has already told Deila he is happy to keep playing until the last kick of the ball this season.

"It has been quite a turnaround for me," smiled Gordon. "Two seasons ago I was at Dumbarton doing a bit of coaching work with Ian Murray. I couldn't have imagined that I would have another chance to play at this level, that I would be looking at winning a league Championship medal.

"I always felt that I had it in me to keep playing, but I don't know that I would have thought I would ever get to playing on this kind of stage again. It has been amazing. I'd be happy to play out the last games. I think I've had enough rest in my career!"

While playing regular first-team football again without injury - Gordon works on specific gym exercises to maintain the core muscles around his knee and has been untroubled by it this term - has been a reward in itself, the keeper is now looking to the unique demands and pressures of the Uefa Champions League.

Again, it is an arena he felt he would never have the chance to see again, and he believes the current Hoops squad are in a far better place to make the most of their opportunity this summer than they were last July.

The club's sense of displacement when Deila first took over from Neil Lennon was such that they missed two chances to progress in the lucrative tournament - first when they were thumped by Legia Warsaw, but then blew a second bite at the cherry when they were re-instated due to the Polish side fielding an ineligible player and were subsequently defeated by Maribor.

Certainly, they will be far better prepared this summer for the demands of those games given the manner in which there seems to be far more harmony and unity in the squad.

But for all that they are in a position to approach the games in a positive frame of mind, there is no question that getting through three qualifiers and into the group stages of the competition is a formidable ask.

Gordon, though, is already setting his mind to the challenge.

"It will be great to get another go at it," he said. "We know we should have done so much better than we did last year and there is a feeling we can go and acquit ourselves far better now and take it to the next level.

"It is one thing to say it and another to do it, but I think we are all excited to get that opportunity. I have never had the chance to play in the group stages of the Champions League and I wouldn't have thought I would have ever had the chance not so long ago.

"To be at this stage in my career and to have come through what I have, well, it's just very exciting.

"I want to make the most of it. We feel that we can live in that kind of company, but the challenge now is to get ourselves in there. That is what the whole focus is on now."