Keane to win: Robbie Keane wants to win this season's Scottish Cup before leaving Celtic to head back to Spurs. Pic: ©SNS Group
Robbie Keane wants a Scottish Cup winners medal in his pocket for when he heads home to Tottenham Hotspur in the summer. The on-loan Celtic striker bagged a second half hat-trick in his team’s 3-0 win over Kilmarnock in the Scottish Cup quarter finals on Saturday.
Keane made it eight goals in eight games for the Hoops with his treble, with all three strikes coming in the second period after Kilmarnock had looked threatening for the first 45 minutes.
The Republic of Ireland international now has his sights on lifting silverware with his boyhood club, with the SPL title out of their sights owing to Rangers’ 13 point lead at the top.
"It would be brilliant [to take a Scottish Cup medal back]," Keane said. "I'm only here a short space of time and to win something would be fantastic.
"At a club like Celtic you need to be involved in these competitions and certainly get to the final and obviously it would have been very disappointing for everyone involved with Celtic if we had got beaten today.
"So full credit to everyone that we got a good result and we look forward to the next round.
Keane’s contribution was a telling one for Celtic as they struggled to deal with Kilmarnock’s harrying throughout the opening period, with the hosts refusing to give their visitors a chance to settle on the ball.
The Celtic forward passed up a rare opportunity midway through the first period but capitalised on Kilmarnock’s desire to push forward later on, meaning he went home with the match ball.
Keane though played down the importance of his role in the final result and credited Tony Mowbray with turning things around with his half-time team talk.
"The most important thing is getting the win and getting into the next round,” insisted Keane. "The first half we didn't play well and the manager said a few things and we were better in the second half.
"I believe in my own ability - that if I get chances I'll score goals."
Mowbray credited his whole team’s second half performance for their turnaround to defeat Jimmy Calderwood’s team, saying that everyone played their part in ensuring Keane got the goals necessary to put them through.
"The bottom line is that it is a team thing but Robbie stuck the ball in the back of the net and we're thankful he's doing that," said Mowbray.
"As long as he continues to work hard for the team and contribute with goals then I will never have any complaints.
"He did what he does in the second half. It was great work by Braafheid for the first goal, Georgios Samaras for his second and Marc-Antoine Fortune for his third.
"It is a team game and he was there to finish them off and that's why he is here, he can do that.”
