Carter Vickers details successful Celtic pairing with Liam Scales as he makes season run in vow

Cameron Carter-Vickers has hailed Liam Scales for dealing with the pressure of stepping up at Celtic this season as he revealed the success behind their central defensive partnership.

Hoops boss Brendan Rodgers described Scales as “one of the biggest surprises of my career as a coach” earlier in the season with Scales a standout. It came amid injuries to Carter-Vickers and new signings Maik Nawrocki and Gustaf Lagerbielke not making the impact expect after the departure of Carl Starfelt, who had struck up a rock-solid pairing with Carter-Vickers before departing for Celta Vigo in Spain.

The form of Scales has seen him earn Republic of Ireland recognition and Carter-Vickers heaped praise on his team-mate with a huge test against Rangers at Ibrox on Sunday coming up. The 26-year-old said: “Liam has done really well. He has played pretty much every game this season, which I’m sure if you asked him at the start of the season then he might not have believed to be true. He was always one of Aberdeen’s better players last season and when he came back from pre-season he was straight into the team and playing well. You can see he has taken that pressure on and has remained ever-present.

“As a centre back partner, it doesn’t affect me if they are right or left-footed. It’s more about learning how your partner like to defend certain situations and what their tendencies are in defensive situations. Once you learn that then you can adapt your game to form the best partnership you can. Anytime you change the person you play with, you take a few game s to learn and adjust from that.

“The more you play with someone the more you build that connection. Our game-time has been been a bit there and there with my injuries, but I’m hopeful we