The last time Celtic left Stair Park on the back of a Scottish Cup win they went on to land a domestic Treble.

And Ronny Deila has admitted that his superstitious nature regarded Sunday’s routine victory over Stranraer as a portent of what may be about to come this season.

Deila has been public throughout his tenure at the club about his desire to win a Treble and his ambition will now come under sharper scrutiny as the latter months of the campaign loom into view.

There are only three Celtic teams who have achieved such a feat but Deila remains upbeat about teh possibility of adding to that number,

“Yes, I actually am quite superstitious,” smiled Deila. “I have my things that I do – but I won’t tell you what they are!

“Someone told me before the game that the last time Celtic won a Treble they had a victory over Stranraer and so I hope it is a good sign for us. I hope so.

“We have our goals and they are high goals and we know how tough it is because so few teams have done it but that will not stop us from aiming for a Treble.

“We are still in it and we will fight for every game and then see where we are.

“For me, I just want to find a way to the final.

“It is always difficult in these early stages and you cannot take anything for granted. But we have shown our professionalism and now we need to try and aim to be as consistent as possible between now and the end of the season.”

Leigh Griffiths netted his 21st and 22nd goals of the season during Sunday’s 3-0 win and Deila believes that the player is ready to make the transition from club football to international football.

Griffiths is just one goal shy of hitting the 50 mark for Celtic, an incredible start given the indifferent beginnings of his Celtic career.

Despite clocking up the goals in the 86 games that he has played for Celtic, the 25-year-old so far has only 6 full caps to show in his career, something that Deila believes he is ready to challenge.

Scotland will cool their heels this summer as yet another party goes on by without an invite but friendly games at the end of March against the Czech Republic and Denmark will give Griffiths the best chance to underline credentials to Gordon Strachan.

“Leigh has played exceptionally well for us not just at club level but also in Europe too,” said Deila. “He has international football inside of him, I think. I am sure he will get his chances and then it is up to him to take them.

“It is very important for him and we want our players to be in there playing international football. You learn so much playing at that level, not just from being in the games but also even just training with players who are all at a high level. It definitely helps the development and Leigh is certainly capable of playing there for Scotland.

“There are good strikers like Steven Fletcher in there but I would certainly say that Leigh has improved so much over the last 15 months or so. He has matured so much as a player. I think he maybe just needs one chance to show what he has got.”

Kieran Tierney, another promising young Scot that Strachan will be keeping a close watch on, went off during the latter stages of Sunday’s games with what appeared to be a tightening in his calf.

Deila expects the player to be ready for this Friday night’s game against Dundee United at Tannadice but he is wary of burning the 18-year-old out.

“He has had problems with his calf before so we just wanted to be safe,” said the Norwegian. “We need to build him up because he is not used to playing so many games at this level. We just want to be sure that we are not asking him to do too much. We will see how it settles over the next few days but there was nothing too serious with it. He should be fine for Friday night.”

And Deila believes that the defensive ills that have caused Celtic so much grief this season are slowly easing.

Replacing the partnership of Virgil van Dijk and Jason Denayer has been a considerable headache for Deila but Jozo Simunovic is easing himself into the role at the back.

“If we defend well as a team then we will always make chances. That is what we have to work on,” said Deila.

“I think we have improved defensively lately. We still have a lot of work to do but we feel as though we are getting better. It is important that we try and learn from the mistakes that we have made. That is the only way you can progress.

“We are not there just yet but I do think we look a bit more comfortable now defensively.”