In assessing his options for the traditional pre-cup final getaway, it can be safely assumed that Ronny Deila would have sooner set sail for Anchorage, Alaska, than make the short hop to Dublin. As his side left McDiarmid Park with three points in the bag in the middle of last month, the Norwegian thought it best to grant his players a day off to clear their minds before the small matter of Inter Milan at Celtic Park demanded their full focus. By the time the squad reassembled at Lennoxtown on Monday morning, though, their numbers were depleted by one. Anthony Stokes, a native of Dublin, had failed to make his scheduled flight back to Glasgow after returning home for a family visit. Anthony Stokes missed Celtic's big game with Inter last month, but is keen to make the most of the next one . Whether or not Stokes would have featured against the Italians was beside the point. His absence left Deila with no option but to banish him from what was left of the build-up. An unnecessary distraction, if ever there was one. For those lucky enough to witness the pulsating 3-3 draw that ensued, a sense of bewilderment as to why someone would jeopardise the chance to live out their boyhood dream was compounded by the fact that Stuart Armstrong and Gary Mackay-Steven had only recently put further pressure on the Irishman’s position. Yet, if there is a sense of deep regret from the player regarding what transpired, he’s doing a mighty fine job of hiding it. In his eyes, neither a private apology nor a public explanation were warranted. Only a need to hastily draw a line under the affair. Asked if he regretted what happened, Stokes replied: ‘No. Look the situation has been dealt with. It’s as simple as that. I’ve spoken to the gaffer about it and there’s no issue now.’ Stokes has been battling for his place in the side since failing to return to Celtic on time before the Inter game . Had he apologised to Deila over what had taken place? ‘No,’ he repeated. ‘Look, I said I spoke to the gaffer about everything and that’s it – it’s been dealt with. It’s done.’ So what actually happened? ‘There’s nothing. It’s dealt with,’ he said. But it must have been tough to sit such a huge game out? ‘It was difficult,’ he admitted. ‘It’s difficult for me to miss any game as I want to play every minute of them.’ Try as he might to consign the matter to history, Stokes is going to have to go some way to erase it from the minds of his manager and the supporters who pay his wages. Deila initially left him out of the squad for the subsequent game with Aberdeen but 59 minutes against St Johnstone and 64 minutes against Dundee United on Sunday did at least suggest he’s now edging off the naughty step. With Mackay-Steven and Armstrong cup-tied for Sunday’s final, Stokes has every chance of featuring at Hampden. And to his credit, he acknowledges that the instant impressions made by the recent acquisitions have raised the bar for him. ‘There’s a lot of competition for places here at the minute and even after that (missing Inter) it’s not as if I’ve been a regular in the squad the past few weeks,’ he stated. Stokes has not made a public apology for his behaviour, but was keen to draw a line under the incident . ‘I’ve played the last two games. Even for myself, I would have liked to have played a little bit better because I know the situation with the boys from Dundee United. ‘They will be straight back in contention as soon as we have these games by us. It’s up to me to obviously go out and try to put my stamp down and keep myself in the team. ‘I haven’t been outstanding since I came back in but I have been creating and getting into positions to score but I just haven’t. ‘I know the goals will come. I have had spells like this before where things haven’t clicked. I just need to keep my confidence up and to have enough belief in myself that next time I get an opportunity I will put it away.’ There would be no finer time and place to start than Sunday at Hampden. ‘Yes, it would be, especially after the last week,’ he reflected. ‘I had one or two chances but the ball just won’t go in the back of the net for me at the moment. ‘I have been working hard in training and I have scored a few goals there and that has given me confidence. You just need to go out on the pitch and keep doing right things.’ The National Stadium wouldn’t immediately spring to mind as an obvious backdrop for the salvation to start. Stokes played in the Scottish Cup semi-final defeat to Hearts in 2012, the League Cup Final loss to Kilmarnock the same year, as well as a semi-final reverse in the same competition to St Mirren the following season. But his memories of his last trip there provides a welcome analgesic to the pain that went before. The striker has not been in the best of form recently, but is likely to get another chance to prove himself . ‘Probably, the (Scottish) Cup final against Hibs (in 2013) when I got man of the match,’ he replied when asked of his favourite day on Mount Florida. ‘That was one of the highlights of the season for me because I had been out injured previously for five or six months. ‘To finish that way and on a high was massive for me because I had been out for so long. I didn’t know how I was going to come back. ‘When I first came back my ankle was still at me. So I was glad that was behind me and I showed I could still perform on the pitch.’ He didn’t score that day – a Gary Hooper double and Joe Ledley’s goal completed the Double for Neil Lennon – but there was much for him to savour. ‘Yes, I had a couple of crosses for Gary and it was good to finish on a high, more so because of the injury because it had been a long season,’ Stokes recalled. ‘The injury had drained me a bit being out for so long and it had been the first time in my career that I had been out for more than a few weeks.’ Assists are all very well, but a man who’s known little more than life in the penalty box appreciates they are rarely the hard currency on which you are judged. ‘I would rather be in the middle scoring goals but it is difficult the way we play just now,’ he added. ‘There is so much emphasis on getting back and defending and putting in the graft for the team. ‘I have been trying to adapt my game to that, as well. It has been a bit of a strange season for me. I actually don’t mind playing on the left but you are never going to get the same plaudits as playing up front and scoring all the goals. ‘It is different because even when I played up front, I’ve been on my own and I have always played in a two. I have just had to adjust. The main thing is the team.’ Even if Stokes plays and scores the goal to win the cup on Sunday, it will be hard to view him as the identikit of Deila’s ideal player. Yet, notwithstanding the Inter episode, he believes he has now adjusted to the heightened demands of the Norwegian. ‘The one thing about the gaffer is that our base for every game is our work rate,’ he added. ‘It stems from there. The way we are playing is probably tactically a bit different from before. ‘There aren’t many spells when we keep possession for maybe 20, 30 passes. It’s always – get the ball, be direct, swarm them, break quickly. ‘But it seems to be working. It’s something that was never just going to happen overnight. It just wasn’t going to click. ‘I think there’s been gradual progress throughout the season and I think we’re getting there. ‘I just have to work hard and train as hard as I possibly can. I needed to give myself a lift, keep my fitness levels up and wait for an opportunity to get back in, which fortunately I have got.’
Anthony Stokes reported back late to Glasgow after visiting his family . The striker was left out of the 3-3 draw with Inter Milan as a result . But Stokes has now moved on, and is the frame to start on Sunday .