Gary Hooper is looking hopefully forward to picking up some prizes by the end of his first at Celtic after being nominated for both PFA Scotland Player of the Year awards. Hooper is in line for the top award from his fellow professionals as well as the young player prize. However, his is more interested in what he can do to help the club pick up some silverware. Celtic lead Rangers by two points in the SPL and face Aberdeen in the Scottish Cup semi-finals on Saturday.Hooper is also looking to overtake Kenny Miller's tally of 21 goals to claim the accolade of SPL top scorer. Hooper has 15 goals to his name in a season interrupted by two injury lay-offs, with seven games left to achieve his ambition. Hooper said: "The main thing is winning trophies, then I would like to win both awards and hopefully go for top scorer as well." Hooper expects to be fit for the Hampden game with Aberdeen after missing the 1-0 win over St Johnstone with a dead leg.Daryl Murphy and Georgios Samaras came into the team up front with Anthony Stokes also dropping out and Hooper welcomed the competition. He said: "I'm nearly there. I was injured on Tuesday but I should be all right for Sunday. It's good competition, it gets the best out of you. Both boys, Sami and Murph, did well the other night, and we got the result."
Hooper, who won a first call-up to the England Under-21s last month before pulling out with injury, admitted he could not have imagined achieving such personal recognition when he signed from Scunthorpe for £2million in July. He said: "I didn't think about it when I signed for Celtic. I just came up to score goals and it's a bonus being nominated twice. I came up here to score goals, I've been doing that and the whole team are playing well and scoring goals as well. It's been a good season for me and Celtic and hopefully we can finish it off."
Celtic have scored 17 goals in four games against Aberdeen this season but full-back Mark Wilson has warned against complacency as the Pittodrie side seek revenge for their defeat in the Co-operative Insurance Cup. Wilson said: "We've defeated Aberdeen every time this season and they've all been good results. I didn't play in the 9-0 victory but it was a fantastic occasion for the club and I enjoyed watching it. Then I scored at Pittodrie and we also won at Hampden, so there have been a lot of happy memories. Hopefully it's the same again and we play the same way, I just hope this one isn't the disappointing game out of the lot because the Scottish Cup is something we really want to win. We have to guard against complacency, we can't go into it thinking it will be an easy game because we've won the last four. Most of the games, if not all of the games, we've turned up and played really well against them and it's important we do that again at Hampden. It's sometimes difficult to do that in a semi-final but we managed it the last time in the League Cup so fingers crossed it's the same this time."