SNAP AT THEIR HEEL
Morton legend Ritchie urges Jim Duffy’s underdogs to have a go at Hoops’ weakest link and not freeze on big occasion like he did way back in 1979
ANDY RITCHIE believes Brendan Rodgers made a rod for his own back by sweeping the domestic board last season.
The Morton legend is convinced that Treble triumph has only increased the pressure on the Celtic boss to repeat the feat and that losing to his old club on Saturday will leave this campaign in tatters.
It’s that small margin for error which the 61-year-old feels can be exposed by the Cappielow side in their Scottish Cup quarter-final clash at Parkhead.
Ritchie is convinced attack can be the best form of defence for a side aiming to deliver the same knockout blow to the Hoops as in 2013 when Dougie Imrie’s penalty goal secured a stunning win in the League Cup. He said: “Brendan raised the bar at Celtic. There have been others who have come in and won the Treble but they didn’t win them as emphatically as it was done last season. “That is now where the bar has been set. “He knows it will be hard to achieve that again. He was probably delighted, in a way, that Hearts ended their unbeaten run, I have no doubt it had affected them, but Celtic haven’t played well since the winter break.
“It’s taking a bit of time to get some momentum again but last weekend’s win at Aberdeen will have helped a little bit.
“I don’t know whether Brendan gets two, three or four million pounds as a salary but when the people who matter sit down at Celtic Park and there is no domestic Treble then it will be looked upon as a failure.”
As one of Scottish football’s great maverick figures from the past, Ritchie takes an all-or-nothing approach to Morton’s hopes of pulling off a shock.
And he has identified Celtic’s central defence as the Achilles heel that Jim Duffy’s men should be targeting. He said: “If you don’t get up the park you don’t score goals and you are going out of the Cup.
“Let’s face it, there are not many games at Celtic Park that finish 0-0 but Dedryck Boyata has been out injured and he is probably their best central defender.
“Jozo Simunovic has been a bit hot and cold while Mikael Lustig has always been a steady Eddie and the young boy Kieran Tierney is a fantastic young player.
“But even going back to Ronny Deila, he was less than successful in picking central defenders.
“I scouted at Aston Villa and there was a manager who sat me down one
When the people who matter at Celtic Park sit down and there is no domestic Treble it will be seen as a failure ANDY RITCHIE
Friday afternoon and asked us, ‘What’s the hardest position to fill in the Premier League?’ We were all sitting round the table and somebody said, ‘Striker, because you need £50million.’
“Others said, ‘Goalkeeper, because he can save goals.’ And the answer came back, ‘No, it’s the centre-half.’
“One week he’ll be chasing down the channels with Michael Owen at 150mph. The next he’ll be stuck playing against Alan Shearer who is going to engage him in a battle.
“So you get a dozen different types of striker and a manager wants a guy who can accommodate every type of guy every week.
“I agreed with him then and I’ve agreed with him ever since.
“Central defender is undoubtedly one of the most difficult positions to fill. There are not many going about and the best of the best certainly don’t come to Scotland.’
Ritchie recalls tales of his seven years at Cappielow from the mid-1970s and early 1980s with both fondness and regret. And he has warned Morton they must not be paralysed by the occasion.
He said: “The key is that they don’t freeze. They did that for an hour against Aberdeen at Hampden in the League Cup semi-final last season. It let them down a bit.
“I remember coming to Hampden to play for Morton against Aberdeen in the 1979 League Cup semi-final.
“Somebody said to me before the game they were worried that we would freeze and I’m thinking, ‘What are you talking about? It’s a great day coming here in the semi-final of the cup with 25,000 of your own fans travelling up on the day.’
“Yet I froze that day and we did the same as a team. To this day I don’t really understand why. I don’t know if I got out on that park and forgot what I had gone there to do but it wasn’t until the last 20 minutes of the game that we started competing.
“I hit the post, scored a penalty and we should have got a draw out of the game but lost 2-1.
“That was the only day in all my time at Morton that I felt, individually and collectively, we just didn’t do ourselves justice.
“We didn’t do as well as we could have but Morton have been here. They have been to Ibrox and been to Celtic Park and I don’t think that will happen.
“Jim Duffy is a wise old owl and I’m sure he will take steps to make sure that doesn’t happen. His teams, whenever I have seen them, have gone and had a go.
“I remember Benny Rooney saying to us when we went to Celtic Park and Ibrox, ‘Don’t lose anything in the first quarter of an hour or 20 minutes, because you’ll feel as if you’re running uphill for the rest of the game.’
“They talk about parking the bus. We couldn’t afford a bus, so we pitched five tents on the 18-yard line.”
●Andy Ritchie was speaking at a William Hill media event. William Hill is the proud sponsor of the Scottish Cup.