Broony: Cup final bosses tried to sabotage Treble bid
SCOTT BROWN has accused the SFA of trying to sabotage Celtic’s historic double Treble bid by failing to water the sticky Hampden surface in the Scottish Cup Final. Hoops skipper Brown led
FROM BACK PAGE Celtic to unprecedented back-to-back trebles with a 2-0 win over Motherwell in the showpiece. But the 32-year-old claimed the surface wasn’t conducive to their style of play and instead suited the Steelmen’s more direct approach with the pitch dry on a scorching hot day. Brown said: “They didn’t water the pitch at half-time to try and stop us playing but it didn’t stop us, we still tried to play our game. “Motherwell are a very honest team – they play long, direct, very physical but we play football the proper way, we get it down on the floor.” Brown has demanded Scottish football’s authorities do more to stop their rivals playing dirty tricks with their pitch. Brendan Rodgers and Craig Levein were embroiled in a war of words earlier this month over the length of the Tynecastle grass. And Brown believes rules should be put in place to prevent any gamesmanship over the playing surfaces in the Premiership. It comes after the Jambos row when Parkhead boss Rodgers branded the Gorgie pitch an embarrassment before Levein told him to quit moaning. Rules are in place for English Premier League clubs to ensure top-flight surfaces are up to scratch. The height of the grass isn’t allowed to exceed 30mm – the same as UEFA’s ruling – and the entire pitch must be cut to the same height.
And Brown said: “If you look down in England, that’s where we’re going wrong in Scotland. Everyone will try anything to stop us – they’ll grow the grass, they don’t water it but down in England, there’s rules.
“They want to see top quality football and that’s maybe where the Scottish game has gone wrong and where the SFA maybe have to step up their game.
“This treble is more of an achievement because everyone wants to stop us, everyone wants to beat us.”
After another dominant domestic season Brown now has his sights set on making progress in Europe and believes a Champions League last-16 place is a realistic target.
Asked if that’s achievable, Brown said: “I don’t see why not. The manager wants us to push and we want to push as well.
“We’ve looked after ourselves well this season, pushed in the big games especially where we’ve done well and domestically we’ve cleared up again.
“The stats were maybe not as impressive this year as they were last year but we got Europe after Christmas, that was a goal we ticked off.
“There were too many draws this season for our liking and too many defeats. So next season we’ll work on that, we’ll get better.
“There will be a few additions so we’ll kick on from here. We’ve got the Champions League to try and get to and that’s where this club deserves to be but we need to make sure we put in the hard work.”