The Irish winger has been heavily linked with a summer move to Newcastle United and the Premier League but McGeady, buoyed by last Wednesday night’s win over Rangers, is adamant he is staying in Glasgow.

“I’m still contracted here for the next three years,” said the 22-year-old. “I’m developing as a player here and I’ve got the right people around me and I’m playing with the right players.

“I can see myself here for the near future anyway because there is a lot of work I want to do to improve as a player for Celtic. When I came into the team I struggled with consistency — maybe going through three or four months having a good spell and then a few months of not being at my best. This season I’ve had more consistency.”

Celtic did themselves and their ailing title hopes a massive favor in last week’s contentious Old Firm derby when an injury time goal from Jan Vengeloor of Hesselink proved decisive.

“I think we are right back in it,” added McGeady. “But we know that every game from now on is a must-win game and we can’t afford to drop any more points.

“Against Aberdeen the other day, it was quite a nerve-wracking for 10 or 15 minutes but we managed to get through it. If we had dropped points, the league effectively would have been over.

“But we didn’t, we got the three points and the ball is still rolling. We are still in with a chance as long as it’s still mathematically possible to win it.”

Celtic meet Rangers again on Sunday fresh from last week’s win -– their first against Walter Smith since his return — when the presence of new coach Neil Lennon in the dressingroom was a major factor according to full-back Mark Wilson.

“Neil is a big personality and has played a massive part in these games in the past five or six years. Lenny was fully charged up for the game, as you can imagine, and that has rubbed off on some of the boys,” said Wilson.

Irish under-16 international Stephen McDonnell has agreed a move to Celtic from Dundalk Leinster Senior League side Quay Celtic.

Former Celtic captain Jackie McNamara has had his contract at Aberdeen cancelled by mutual consent.

Trap Loses

NEW Ireland boss Giovanni Trapattoni surrendered his Austrian League crown on Sunday even though his final home game in charge saw Red Bull Salzburg beat Austria Vienna 2-0.

Rapid Vienna clinched the title with a 3-0 victory over Altach as Trapattoni said goodbye to Red Bull.

“I am very pleased that we won this game,” the Italian was quoted as saying by the Irish Mirror. “It is a really important win as I was determined to leave Salzburg and the amazing fans here on a positive note. Grazie Salzburg, thank you Red Bulls and goodbye.”

Trapattoni will be unveiled as Irish boss at the RDS next Thursday. He has received an endorsement from Football Association of Ireland (FAI) ambassador Bobby Robson, who claims the FAI have appointed a better manager than new England boss Fabio Capello.

“We’ve got talent right here in our own league, why look abroad?” Robson told News of the World. “But the FA expanded the search and talked to Capello, big track record, big player. We’ll wait and see but I’m not so sure.

“Ireland have appointed Trapattoni. He’s very experienced and speaks decent English, better than Capello! At half-time how can you communicate tactics if you can’t talk to the players? With Trapattoni you don’t have that problem. He can converse which, at international level, is absolutely critical.”

Trapattoni may have to plan without Man City captain Richard Dunne for the games against Serbia and Colombia next month after he picked up a hamstring injury in Sunday’s win over Portsmouth.

McCarthy Waits

IRISH youth team international James McCarthy was part of the Hamilton team that won promotion to Scottish Premier League last weekend, but he has no immediate plans to take up any of the offers coming his way from a host of Premier League clubs.

Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur, Celtic, Rangers, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich have all been linked with the player, but he will not rush a decision.

“I went to Liverpool for a trial before, but I wasn’t ready,” McCarthy told the Irish Mirror. “So I’ll see at the end of the season what the club and I want to do. I’m enjoying myself at Hamilton but if the right deal comes along, we’ll need to talk about it.”

O’Connell Injured

PAUL O’Connell is the major injury worry for Munster ahead of Sunday’s epic Heineken Cup semifinal against Saracens in Coventry, but coach Declan Kidney is confident that Ronan O’Gara will be fit for the big game.

O’Gara picked up a knee injury in the recent Magners League defeat to Leinster and sat out the win over the Ospreys in Cork last Saturday night, but only as a precaution.

O’Connell was due to be involved in that game but pulled out prior to kickoff with a hip injury picked up in training.

“Paul has a slight groin strain. He felt a slight twinge and it was decided to take him out of the starting line-up as a precautionary measure,” Munster PRO Pat Geraghty told Setanta Sports. “Paul would be missed greatly if he missed out but I don’t think it’s an issue at all. It’s purely precautionary, as I said.”

Both O’Connell and O’Gara will be crucial to Munster’s hopes on Sunday as they look to take another step towards a second European Cup title.

“It’s something we spoke about straight away in the dressing room in 2006. We said we would be very disappointed to win just one and think of that as the end of it — the pinnacle of your career,” hooker Jerry Flannery told the Sunday Mirror.

Former Munster coach Alan Gaffney has admitted that he has drawn on his Irish experiences in his job with the English side.

“A lot of things that Munster are, Saracens would like to be. Responsibility, accountability, trust, loyalty, belief are all things that Munster very much pride themselves in,” Gaffney told the Sunday Tribune.

“It’s about trusting the guy inside you, not making excuses, you stuff up and you hold your hands up and admit it.”

Gaffney is also an admirer of the Reds and added, “They’re a hard edged side with amazing mental strength who are very good rugby players. I don’t think I have any advantage over them, it’s negated by what the players know about the way I coach.”

Tour Win for McGrane

MEATH native Damien McGrane celebrated his maiden victory on the European PGA Tour in some style on Sunday with an impressive nine stroke victory at the Volvo China Open in Beijing.

The 37-year-old, who learned his trade at Headfort golf club in his native Kells and now represents the Knightsbrook course in Trim, is now a contender for Ryder Cup honors in September after moving right into the Top 10 on the European Order of Merit.

McGrane made little of torrential rain to blow the field apart on his way to his first win in six years on tour.

“Every player that plays on the European Tour wants to win a tournament and now I have won the world is my oyster,” said McGrane. “It is what I have grown up for since I was a little boy and hopefully I can go on and win more tournaments.

“It is an amazing feeling to win my first tournament, I have been talking about winning for a long time and this week everything went my way. I had good fortune and I loved the course, the bad weather didn’t affect my game in any way today. Now I have my first win on Tour which is very big for me.”

Chipping and putting were the keys for the Kells native. “My short game this week has been excellent and I knew that if the weather turned everybody would have to rely on their short game,” he added.

In other golf news, Padraig Harrington has opted out of next month’s BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth to concentrate on winning his second major title at the U.S. Open.

Leinster’s Move

LEINSTER, beaten by Edinburgh in the Magners League last Saturday night, have been linked with a move for versatile Auckland back Isa Nacewa.

Michael Cheika’s side must now win their next home game against the Ospreys on Saturday, May 3 to secure the title after losing in Murrayfield once again.

“We hung tough and we showed a lot of determination to get back into the game, but we got sucked into the width of the game and didn’t play smart enough,” said Cheika. “It was a scrappy game and obviously we’re disappointed because we had a chance to miss it at the end, but we have to take it on the chin and work hard.

“There’s no panic, but we have to look at our performance and learn from our mistakes. Some points of our play were quite good. We had a lot of possession, but the problem was that we didn’t use it.”