‘The way the team was going . . . I was probably the scapegoat’ – Adam Idah sets record straight on how he is perceived

And the Cork native says he’s emerged stronger from a challenging spell, which threatened to derail a very promising career at one stage.

With two goals in his last two games – the winner for Celtic in the Scottish Cup final and then the opening goal in Ireland’s 2-1 defeat of Hungary, which ended a 14-game unbeaten run from the Hungarians – Idah is in a good place as he prepares for the final test of the season, away to Portugal tomorrow night.

Decisions await; he’s contracted to Norwich for another four years, and while everyone at Celtic would love for his loan spell to be made into a long-term deal, as far as he knows, he reports back for pre-season with Norwich next month, a new manager to impress as Daniel Wagner (the boss who loaned him out to Celtic) was sacked. For now, he’s happy to be wanted.

“I never doubted myself once in my career. I’ve always been confident and I’m glad I got to show that this season,” Idah says, speaking from a quiet corner of the Irish team hotel in Porto.

“It’s difficult for a young person when they go into a first-team and when you score a hat-trick, there are high expectations on you. I’m not saying Norwich was bad, I’ve obviously had lots of good times with Norwich.

“When we’re going through that period of not getting promoted and maybe we’ve lost a few games that maybe we shouldn’t have, it’s quite difficult. Once you get stuck in that little hole, it’s quite hard to get out.

“Overall, I have enjoyed Norwich. It’s the club that brought me up and where I started my career. I can only say good things about them. This is part of the football culture. You do get a lot of lulls in your football career, and probably the last two years, I was having those lulls.”

The move to Celtic revived his spirits after a tough time at Carrow Road. “For me, going to that new environment was unbelievable for me and to have everyone behind you and supporting you is probably what I needed,” he admits.

“I struggled a bit at Norwich, probably on the back end of a lot of things, with the way the team was going, and I was probably the scapegoat for that. Going to Celtic really brightened it up for me and gave me a lot of confidence. For a striker to have that confidence is amazing.”

Not many players would choose to use that scapegoat word, but Idah (right) is happy to expand on what he means. “I just think the fans and the media, it felt that anything I was doing was wrong. If I scored a goal, it wasn’t as good as the last time. If I didn’t play minutes, I’m not good enough. Just stuck in that hole. It probably happens to everyone in football, not just me.

“It was just unfortunate that I was in it at that period,” he says, pointing out that he was also accused of being injury-prone. People say I’ve had a lot of injuries, but I’ve only had two injuries.

“I don’t know where this has come from – that I’m very injury-prone. This is probably the media and the fans saying I’ve always been injured, but I’ve had two injuries, two contact injuries and I’ve never pulled a muscle in my career. That’s the strange one for me – to be hearing that I’m always injured and it’s not the case.”

Idah was one of the foundation stones of the Stephen Kenny era with Ireland; an early vote of confidence when Idah started in Kenny’s first two games in 2020. But international football was also a struggle, with Idah playing 15 games without a goal before his first, in a 3-0 win over Gibraltar, with shades of John Aldridge and his goal drought with Ireland before the goals flooded in.

“It took me a long time to get a goal. The squad here has been fantastic, and right now, I would like to help the team as much as I can whether that’s scoring goals, assisting or doing my part in the game. Getting the goals now is bringing more to my game, and it’s the same at club level. I’ve always wanted to score lots of goals. Hopefully, I can carry on doing that,” he says.

​His Hungary goal set up a win, but his strike against Rangers was the only goal of the game as Celtic landed the double. “It’s quite hard to put it into words. It was an amazing feeling. To get the last-minute winner was fantastic and to do it against Rangers made it even better,” he says.

“I don’t think you even think about those things, so to do that in such a manner was amazing, especially in a cup final. Celtic is a massive club and built off the fans. Playing games like that and scoring the winner, I’m sure the fans will appreciate it and I appreciate them just as much.”

Portugal tomorrow night pose a different threat to Hungary, with Portuguese pride likely to be bruised after a home loss to Croatia on Saturday.

“They are going to be up for it as the Euros is such a big tournament and they all want to be ready for it, but we’re going to be up for it too. Although it’s a friendly, it’s another opportunity for us. None of us want to go into a game and lose when you’re playing for Ireland. We want to win every game regardless of whether it is in a competition or a friendly. Both teams will be up for it,” Idah says.

“We have gone through a tough period and international is difficult when you have four or five camps a year and there is youth coming in and out. It’s difficult to get it going, but that’s the start of it now. We want that mentality for every game, to win every game. The win against Hungary was massive for us and we want to push on and win more.”