Celtic playmaker Ryan Christie celebrated hitting double figures for the first time in his senior career by thanking Parkhead manager Brendan Rodgers. Christie hit his 10th goal of the season in the midweek win over Hibs, with the 23-year-old attributing his success to the license that Rodgers has given him to go and attack.

“The best I have had before was seven when I was up at Aberdeen," he said.

“I think the fact I am playing in such an attacking side means that there are so many chances in games and I am loving it just now. There are always opportunities in games and also I feel as though I have a load of confidence.

“The manager has told me that he sees me as an attacking threat so I have a bit of license to get forward, so long as I am still doing all the other work. But the fact that the manager has had so much faith in me and wants me to get up and in the box has really given me a lot of belief. I don’t think you can underestimate that when you are going onto the pitch.

“Callum McGregor and I are both always wanting to provide a threat and the manager is very good in giving us that freedom to go forward which is fantastic. "It is obviously great to feel that you are contributing with goals and hopefully there are plenty more to come this season." Meanwhile, Celtic could make a little bit of history this weekend of they are successful in getting past St Johnstone in the Scottish Cup. A win wold surpass the current record of 23 successive wins in domestic cup competitions set by Walter Smith but Christie's main focus is on ensuring that Celtic enjoy a successful defence of the trophy. "It is always nice to know that you are setting records and stuff but I don't think we ever think too much about any of that," he said. "First and foremost it is about making sure that we come through the game and go and play as well as we can. "St Johnstone will be up for it and it is always a little bit strange when you are playing the same team so often in such a short space of time.

"You get these little anomalies some seasons but I think we have to aim to be as professional as possible because we know how difficult St Johnstone will look to make it for us." Sunday's Scottish Cup tie is followed by a Europa League meeting with Valencia on Thursday night with Christie delighted to head into different competitions with Celtic's record since the turn of the year still unblemished.

“It is nice that we have given ourselves a little bit of a cushion in the league but I think we are all aware it's not a huge gap," he said. "Our aim is to kick on now but the focus this week is a little bit different.

"It is an exciting week and hopefully we can come out of it with the results that we want. "There are a few injury issues for the manager but you can be sure that whoever is asked to play will give it everything to get us where we want to be."