James Forrest has Celtic value beyond minutes as Joe Ledley sees title advantage in gradual transformation

Joe Ledley joined Celtic as James Forrest was starting out on his remarkable career of medal winning. Fast forward 14 years and the winger is still having an influence.

And Ledley reckons his old team-mate and pal can again be a key contributor as the champions attempt to see off the challenge of Rangers and claim their latest crown. 32-year-old Forrest has been a peripheral figure through most of the campaign with Brendan Rodgers trying a variety of wide options. However, no one at the club has more experience of winning titles than Forrest and he gave notice of his current wellbeing with a stunning strike for a goal in Celtic’s last outing against St Johnstone 10 days ago.

The attacker is now in line for another opportunity against Livingston on Sunday and Ledley says Forrest’s valuable nous will be key in the weeks ahead. The Welshman, who signed just a few weeks after Forrest made his top-team debut under the management of Neil Lennon against Motherwell in 2010, reckons there’s no substitute for know-how when it comes to the nitty-gritty stage of the term.

With 23 winners’ medals on his CV including 11 titles, Rodgers, who was boss for two of those, knows he has a man who can star within his unit. Ledley said: “Obviously, Jamesy is very experienced now. It is definitely something that’s important and you only have to look back at what he has won for Celtic. It is remarkable.

“It’s great to see him getting some more minutes on the pitch as well now because he has been unfortunate with injuries in his career and also through this season. To have someone like that with that vast experience of having been there and done around the training ground and bringing people on is massive at any time, but even more so this time