MUCH has changed for Celtic since their last visit to face Livingston, and most of it for the better. Certainly for Greg Taylor, whose place in the team was taken that day by Boli Bolingoli, of all people.

In fairness, Taylor was injured that afternoon back in September, but the full-back is keen to impress upon their opponents that they will face a much tougher scrap of it this time around if they want to complete a home double over Ange Postecoglou’s side.

He couldn’t have imagined as he watched on back in the autumn that would be the last time anyone would see Celtic beaten domestically as we go into the spring. One of the biggest changes for Celtic since that day has been the shift in their mentality, according to Taylor, and specifically in their unwillingness to accept any excuses for their shortcomings.

So, while in the past there may have been the odd whinge about the plastic pitch ahead of a visit to Livi, or talk about their past struggles on the ground, Taylor says the only thing that will be acceptable to Celtic come Sunday evening will be coming back to Glasgow with three more precious points in their quest to regain the title.

“It’s been some journey and we’ve improved all along the way,” Taylor said. “There have been challenges, with injuries, boys being chucked in at the deep end, all kinds of stuff.

“But we’ve tried to rise to it on every occasion and I believe we have done that.

“The lads have never looked for excuses, we’ve kept our heads down and grafted away – and the league form has been pretty good since then.”

Taylor of course has less reason than most to moan about the artificial surface at Livi, given he used to play on one every other week at Kilmarnock.

“I wouldn’t go so far [to say I was] an expert,” he said. “But I’ve got a wee bit more experience of it than the rest of the lads from my Kilmarnock days. Expert is a big shout!

“It’s not something we’ve touched on too much. Everyone is well aware it’s astroturf but we’ll go there the same as always and try to play our football.

“If we do that, the result will hopefully take care of itself.

“Do people make more of a big deal of it than us? Possibly. I didn’t mind it at Kilmarnock. You get pretty used to it.

“The only difference is you get so used to playing on grass that the change for one week can make you feel it the next day.

“The one at Livingston is not too bad actually. They are just a good team who have been very successful since they came back in to the league.

“This season they have been the same – home or away. You saw them on Wednesday night getting another good result and we know it will be a difficult game.

“It’s easy to just put it down to them being a bogey team. I don’t think we can do that.

“We know it will be difficult because they are a good side with their own ambitions.

“We have to go and put on a performance and get the result we need.”