SCOTT Brown may be Scottish football's pantomime villain, but he seems perfectly comfortable in the role as long as the competition is behind him. It remains clear as you watch him snarl his way around the field, that being the man opposition fans love to hate is fuel to the Celtic captain’s fire.

It is in proving people wrong, whether they be casting doubt on his footballing abilities from the terraces or from the pundits' chair, that Brown brings the best out of himself.

There is little that would satisfy the 32-year-old more than picking up this season’s PFA Scotland Player of the Year award tonight, just a couple of years on from the obituaries being written for his Celtic career.

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Sitting out the end of Ronny Deila’s reign as manager with inflamed hamstrings, few would have backed Brown to roar back to the levels he has in the last two seasons. It may only have been his current manager Brendan Rodgers, and Brown himself, who would have wagered on such an eventuality.

“Everyone was telling me I was finished a few years ago but I keep bouncing back and proving people wrong,” said Brown. “That’s put a smile on my face and probably made a few people miserable too.

“Not a lot of things bother me to be honest but I just like putting a wee smile on my own face. I can still go and play 60 games a season at a top-quality standard. I’ve been playing in the Champions League and also the SPFL, dominating games from start to finish.

“When people say your legs have gone and you’re finished at 30 years old, I turn up and train and I’m fully fit again. I’m still one of the fittest in the team and that’s what keeps me going and feeling as young as I do.”

Brown admits he was sometimes his own worst enemy back in the Deila era such was his willingness to push his body through the pain barrier for the cause.

He believes he is now in the most consistent form of his career though, and he hopes that by retiring from international duty - however much it pained him to do so - will allow him to perform at his peak for years to come.

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“There were a lot of games and I was playing with injuries,” he said. “I played through and that’s always hard work as you want to do the best you possibly can. You try to help the manager out and your team-mates but it didn’t always look great on me.

“I still turned up because I’m willing to play through thick and thin for anybody. At the end of the day I should have taken six or seven weeks out.

“Hindsight is a great thing and we still managed to win the league.”

Celtic will of course win the league again this season, with the only real pressing matter being whether they manage to get over the line with a win over Rangers this afternoon and spark the mother of all title parties in Glasgow’s East End.

Such was Celtic’s superiority in the Scottish Cup semi-final that Brown has felt it necessary to warn against complacency, particularly after the chastening defeat to Hibernian at Easter Road last weekend, although he is clearly relishing the opportunity to win against their biggest rivals.

“It’s fantastic but we need to make sure we turn up,” he said. “If we don’t, well, you saw what happened last Saturday. Teams can run over the top of you and Hibs scored two goals.

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“[Rangers] are a good team. Every team in the SPFL can have good days and bad days. We had a bad day at Easter Road and now we have to go and make sure we do what we need to and get the title back to Celtic Park yet again for seven in a row.”

By claiming the seventh championship in succession, the holy grail of a 10th consecutive title moves tantalisingly into view. Whether Brown is still at the club to savour that possibility remains to be seen, but this 15th trophy of his Celtic career is unlikely to slake his thirst for silverware.

“That’s why I came to Celtic in the first place to be a winner, and win trophies,” he said. “I had a wee sniff of it at Hibs, winning the CIS Cup. I came to Celtic won leagues, Scottish Cups and now trebles. You get greedy, you’re hungry and you want more.

“I want to continue doing it and I still have that drive to win as many trophies as possible before it’s time to call it a day.

“[Ten-in-a-row] is a few years away yet but I feel I can play for another three or four seasons. Whether that’s at Celtic or not… but I would love to stay here for the rest of my career. The club has been great since I signed. Here’s hoping I can win a lot more trophies before I finish. I still have another year to go so that will take me to 34.

“The club knows I’m going nowhere. There is no rush between me, the manager and [chief executive] Peter [Lawwell]. We will sit down whenever we need to sit down. They know I always want to be here.”