The drive from Prestwick to Ayr is a pleasant three-mile jaunt down the rugged Ayrshire coast. On a good day, it takes no more than 15 minutes and yet, for James Forrest, a chance to reduce the length of his daily commute to work held less appeal than it should have.
A Celtic first-team player for 14 years, the 33-year-old is a rare creature in the modern game – the proverbial one-club man. By last January, however, he was in danger of over-staying his welcome at Parkhead.
Football can be an unsentimental business, even for a man who has hoovered up more medals than most of the Lisbon Lions.
Reduced to walk-on cameos in the final minutes of games, 2024 began to feel like the year of reluctant new beginnings. An unsatisfactory end to his Celtic career seemed more likely than not.
Sensing an opportunity, former Parkhead captain Scott Brown was quick on the blower to his Prestwick-based ex-team-mate. One man’s misfortune felt like an opening for Ayr United. A chance to take the Ayrshiremen back to his kith and kin and play out his career in the unpretentious surroundings of Somerset Park.
‘Scott actually phoned me,’ grinned Forrest in recollection, ‘I think he asked me last January, February, if I’d go down.
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Forrest, on right, is still making waves for Celtic at the age of 33
‘What was my answer? Not yet…
‘I don’t even think he said I would get a game, he said I could compete for a place…’
The signing of Nicolas Kuhn from Rapid Vienna felt ominous. Slipping down the pecking order, Forrest failed to play at all between December 2023 and March this year, when he managed the final 14 minutes of a 4-2 win over Livingston.
The Scottish Cup semi-final proved the turning point. Coming off the bench for a finely-poised game against Aberdeen, Forrest struck the Hampden goal which saved his Celtic career. The strike which staved off thoughts of the day when he no longer pulls a green and white jersey over his chest every weekend.
‘I think I’d come on in a few games before that, but that was the real turning point,’ he reflected. ‘It was a semi-final at Hampden, with the run-in to go in the league after that as well.
‘So, for me personally, and for the team as well, we kind of kicked on from there and it was a really good end to the season.’
Forrest ended that campaign so well that he forced his way into Steve Clarke’s squad for Euro 2024. Just the other week he signed a one-year contract extension, keeping him at Celtic until 2026.
Heading into tonight’s top-of-the-table clash at Pittodrie, another goal against Aberdeen would see him join Jimmy McGrory, Paul McStay, Bobby Lennox and Jimmy McMenemy in the small, elite band of Celtic greats who have scored goals for the club in 16 consecutive seasons.
Winger Forrest in training at Lennoxtown on Tuesday ahead of Pittodrie clash
Forrest has so much in common with the legendary Bobby Lennox, a fellow Ayrshireman
‘It’s class when you’re put in a bracket with those names with different stats, but hopefully we can have another conversation after I’ve done it,’ said Forrest when asked about potentially matching the achievement.
‘A few folk have mentioned it now and I’ve been really enjoying this season, the minutes I’ve got, the games I’ve been involved in.
‘It’s not in my head as a stat, as such, it’s more about helping the team as a fellow player.
‘Obviously it’s a good start to the season overall, but I need to get my finger out and make sure I score this season!’
Opportunity knocked when, leading Hearts 3-1 at Tynecastle, Forrest won a late penalty. Chasing a small slice of history, he might feel he should have taken it, but he isn’t the type to blow his own trumpet.
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‘A few folk said that I should have taken the one at Hearts,’ he admitted. ‘As I said, I think I’ve had chances but hopefully the amount of games we’ve got coming up as well, I hope I can manage to get one. Hopefully it will come against Aberdeen, that would be good.’
While Forrest will never raise the European Cup above his head, Lisbon Lion Lennox is the player with whom he shares most in common.
Both chose to serve Celtic for the majority of their playing careers, both hail from modest, working-class Ayrshire backgrounds and both preferred to avoid the spotlight while flying quietly under the radar, racking up trophies as they went.
Hailing from nearby Saltcoats, Lennox hung up his boots and took up an offer to become reserve-team coach under Billy McNeill.
While Forrest has given some thought to what comes when he hangs up his boots, the security of another year in a winning team kicks the can a little further down the road. The future can wait.
‘I’d maybe thought about that a wee bit more before,’ he added. ‘I definitely would like to be involved somewhere in football, but I’ll see what happens when I finish.
‘I think it will be difficult because it’s what you’ve done since you were a wee guy. You love playing, you love training, being part of your squad, with the players and staff and that as well, so it will be difficult. But I think I want to stay in football in some capacity.
‘I know it’s going to come maybe in the next couple of years but, as I said, I’ll just keep working hard off the park and on the training pitch and then when I get a chance to play as well.
‘When you’re playing with Celtic, you’re involved in the Champions League, cups, for the league — there’s so many big games and I just want to take it all in and do as much as I can.
‘I just need to make sure that any chance I get to play and contribute to the team, to make sure I’m enjoying it because, as I say, I’m not going to play forever.
‘I want to just give everything I’ve got to Celtic and see what happens.’
