McCourt arguably made the most crucial single intervention last season for Celtic when he came off the bench at Fir Park in November with his side 15 points behind SPL leaders Rangers. Celtic were drawing 1-1 with second-placed Motherwell until McCourt embarked on one of his direct and skilful runs to set up Gary Hooper for the winner. That was the start of a 17-match winning run in the SPL for Celtic but McCourt only made three substitute appearances during that sequence as a mixture of a niggling injury and, mainly, an inability to force his way into Lennon's line-up saw him play a peripheral part. McCourt said: "I'm hoping to play as much as possible. I don't think I played that big a role last year through one thing or another. "I'm hoping to contribute a bit more this year." The Northern Ireland international would be happy to drop deeper in order to get a game. "I don't really mind to be honest," he said. "I know it's a cliche to say 'as long as I'm in the team' but I genuinely mean that. "If the manager sees me playing there then I've no problem playing there. "I haven't played that role that much but I started to play it towards the end of last season and the start of this. The more I play it, the more I'm getting used to it." McCourt has been linked with a move away during most transfer windows with Blackpool consistently showing an interest but he has not had any offers this summer. "It's early yet," he said. "The manager or (chief executive) Peter (Lawwell) haven't come to me and said there any offers or anything. Until that happens there is no decision to make." McCourt has featured heavily in pre-season and will naturally be looking for some assurance that he remains in Lennon's plans when the season starts. But his immediate aim is to help Celtic into the Champions League group stages with their first match of two potential qualifying ties taking place at home to HJK Helsinki on Wednesday. "It's crucial for the team, more importantly," he said of the next few weeks. "It starts on Wednesday night, the season kicks off from there. "Personally I just want to contribute as much as I can - the team is the most important thing and that's what I'll be concentrating on." Celtic host Inter Milan tomorrow, in a 1.30pm kick-off, having failed to score in four out of five pre-season friendlies, but McCourt is not concerned. "There has been improvement game to game," McCourt said. "The Ajax game was pretty poor but they are a good side and 4-0, I wouldn't say it flattered them but it was a penalty, a wonder goal and a bad mistake from one of our defenders. "I wouldn't say we were worried, we are confident and looking forward to the game against Inter and then Wednesday night."
