CELTIC skipper Scott Brown says the fans have played a big part in the club winning its fifth consecutive championship and set his sights on adding numbers six and seven over the next two seasons. A 3-1 victory over Hearts last Saturday all but sealed the title for Ronny Deila’s men and they will be confirmed as champions on Sunday if they can avoid defeat against Aberdeen at Parkhead.

Brown praised the small band of Celtic supporters who crammed into a corner of the Roseburn Stand at Tynecastle to roar their team to victory and dedicated this league success to them as well.

He said: “I love every minute of going out and winning titles plus it means so much to everyone here to win leagues and play for Celtic in front of the fans. The away fans are exceptional for us. They are louder than most teams’ home fans. We had something like 1500 fans at Tynecastle and they sang louder than the 15,000 Hearts fans so a lot of this is for them for helping us as well.

“We love going to Tynecastle. It’s a great atmosphere, a great pitch and the fans are exceptional. Hearts are a great team but we showed our quality in the final third and we created a lot of chances.

“In the first half it could have been a lot more but at the end of the day it was a great atmosphere and a great win for us. You can only beat the teams in front of you and we’ve done that.”

Celtic are now halfway towards 10-in-a-row and, despite Rangers’ return to the top division next season, Brown wants the next two in the bag.

He told Celtic View: “We’ve won five-in-a-row and we want to push for six and seven. We’ve been knocked out the cups but the league is always the main priority. There have been ups and downs but there have been a lot more ups than downs and it has been a good season for us overall.

“There have been a lot of injuries and people playing through the pain barrier for the club and I think some fans maybe don’t understand that. People only see who turns up on the park and they don’t see the day to day.”