Gary Mackay-Steven has set his sights on hammering Celtic's home advantage over the next few weeks as the Parkhead side look to steady themselves.

A turbulent week finished with Celtic putting their name into the hat for this evening's draw for the William Hill Scottish Cup quarter-finals following a dull 2-0 win over minnows East Kilbride yesterday.

It was a result, if not performance, that eased some of the pressure on the Parkhead side and Mackay-Steven acknowledged that the past few days have been an eye-opener for him.

"There is obviously a lot of pressure at Celtic and there is always a lot of scrutiny on us," he said. "It has probably been the toughest time since I came here.

"But it has been a really difficult week for everyone. It is not easy when there is so much criticism towards the club and the manager and the players.

"It was important for us to get the win over East Kilbride but as soon as the whistle had went we were thinking about Ross County.

"We need to try and get a run of results together that will allow us to pull away now in the league.

And the winger has insisted that he wants to atone for the League Cup semi-final defeat to the Highlanders when the teams meet on Saturday afternoon.

"It would be nice to go out and try and get one over them for what happened at Hampden," he said.

"We know where we are in the league and what we want to do and we know that we need to try and kick on now. We have a couple of home games not which is good and hopefully we can use them to our advantage by picking up maximum points.

"I had an eye on the Aberdeen score at the weekend but to be fair I think we have always had a lot of respect for them as title challengers.

"But we know what we need to do and we would like to start with that this weekend. We have a game in hand now and everything is in our own hands.

Charlie Mulgrew was back among the fold yesterday afternoon and Mackay-Steven was delighted to see the vice-captain back.

"He is such a big player for us and is always in amongst it in the dressing room," he said. "But his versatility can be so important, as can the experience he has.

"We have him coming back and Scott has also come back and they are two players who can be really vital for us in the run-in. They know what it takes to be successful at this club and they can hopefully help us because over the next few weeks they will get sharper and stronger as they get more minutes under their belts."