Commons Ready To Find His Feet

Photo by Jeff Holmes

Kris Commons is looking forward to the first leg of Celtic's Champions League second-round qualifier against KR Reykjavik in Iceland on Tuesday but is aware of how fraught this stage of the competition can be. It will be the Scottish champions' first competitive match of the season and new manager Ronny Deila's first competitive match since taking over from Neil Lennon last month. The Hoops' were given a fright by unfancied Shakhter Karagandy in the play-off last season when they beat Celtic 2-0 in the first leg in Kazakhstan. In a nervy return game in Glasgow, Commons reduced the deficit just before the break and after Georgios Samaras levelled, James Forrest's dramatic stoppage-time strike took Celtic into the group stages. While the Icelandic champions, despite being well into their season, should not present too big a threat to Celtic, Commons acknowledged the potential danger so early in the competition. He said: "It is where we are at the minute. The teams that we are playing against are into their season and we are coming back in dribs and drabs with the likes of international players coming back and people coming back from injury. "It is difficult to hit the ground running. Certainly it took us at least the first game to try to find our feet (against Karagandy) and lucky for us that we hit the ground running when we got back to Celtic Park." Commons' goal against Karagandy was one of 32 he scored in a remarkable season and while he knows that tally will take some beating in this campaign, the attacking midfielder is keen to give it a go. "Whenever you come into a new season you always try to better yourself but realistically I know it is going to be extremely difficult to get 30-plus goals again," said the former Nottingham Forest and Derby player. "It is probably the first and last time I will do it in my career. "I am not an out-and-out striker, I am not a number nine who thrives on scoring 25 goals a season but the mark has been set by myself. If I am getting into the right areas I am more than capable of scoring goals. "I want to prove that it is not just a one-off and I can chip in with as many as I can."