This is what made up my mind to stay and fight on
GERS LOSS FIRED UP TOP BHOY BROWN
SCOTT BROWN last night admitted being written off following defeat to Rangers helped him decide to pen a new deal at Parkhead.
And the Hoops skipper insists he was happy to shoulder the blame for last month’s derby loss at Ibrox to deflect criticism away from his team-mates.
Celtic turned in an unusually subdued showing in Govan as Rangers won their first game against their rivals in 13 meetings
The previous win came in a thrilling Scottish Cup semi-final at Hampden when the Light Blues, then in the second tier, took a dramatic penalty shoot-out.
Brown’s below-par display that day resulted in critics claiming it was the end of the road for the midfielder at the top level.
But the skipper bounced back to lead the Hoops to seven trophies under Brendan Rodgers after he took over from Ronny Deila. And that’s why Brown shrugged off similar talk after Ryan Jack’s winner last month and he has roared back after the winter break to play his part in five wins on the spin.
Boss Rodgers described him as “peerless” in Sunday’s 2-0 win at St Johnstone as the champions opened up a six-point gap at the top of the Scottish Premiership.
Brown penned a twoyear extension last week and, ahead of tonight’s visit of Hibs, he said: “It puts a smile on my face when I’m written off.
“It just makes me go out and work harder to prove to everybody that I can still do it. People walking in the streets told me they’d read in the paper that my legs had fallen off after the Rangers defeat. I was like ‘What, the second time?’. The semifinal defeat was three years ago and people were saying my legs had gone.
“I’m happy to take the blame for the last Rangers game. If they want to hit me with that I’m big enough and ugly enough to deal with it.
“If it eases the pressure for the other lads, I’m willing to take it. I’m big enough and ugly enough.
“I’m 33 now and if someone is going to write to me on Twitter saying I’m finished I’m really going to cry myself to sleep at night...
“I don’t think I have to prove a point to anybody. For me, I’ve done well over my 12 years so far.
“We’ve won a lot of games and set so many records over the past few years. Obviously you are eventually going to get beaten in a game.
“For us, it wasn’t the best performance but we’ll come back stronger from it. Since then we’ve gone on a winning run which has been good for us.”
Brown has dominated the Old Firm derby in recent years but was second best to Scott Arfield in Celtic’s defeat at Ibrox.
But he relishes the challenge showing he’s top dog in Scotland and said: “There’s always a challenge no matter who you play against.
“There are always young ones coming through who will have a point to prove.
“They want to be the next best player coming through their club and show they can play against Celtic, Rangers, Hibs, Hearts and others.
“We’ve got 11 great players in that dressing room and on that pitch week in week out. No matter we are playing and what team plays we believe we can win every game.”