The Greek forward, making his first start since having surgery on his knee in September, resumed his partnership up front with Scott McDonald and in a succesful outing at Love Street he scored the opening goal and played a pivotal role in Shunsuke Nakamura's stunning second strike. Cillian Sheridan replaced Samaras with 13 minutes left on the clock and the young Irishman scored Celtic's third just three minutes later.

Now Celtic and Samaras must focus their attention firmly on the Champions League and the trip to Denmark to face Aalborg "I want to push myself even more now." said Georgis "That's my first game but I'll keep working hard to be stronger. It was a good result and now we must focused on the game on Tuesday. We are ready for that battle."

"The lads did really well today" said the striker "and now we must push ourselves more to play better football. Most of the time St Mirren had eleven men behind the ball and it was difficult for us to find space but we created it and had some chances when we moved the ball fast from one side to the other."

Samaras is hoping to quickly regain the form he showed prior to the surgery "I was in good form before my injury. I was unlucky with it but I'm a human being and not a robot. Injuries are a part of football." he said