Bringing Celtic’s record unbeaten run to a halt would almost be like winning a major trophy
SAYS STEPHEN ROBINSON
THEY may have just experienced Betfred Cup final heartache, but Motherwell boss Stephen Robinson insists ending Celtic’s long run as the Invincibles would be almost as good as winning a trophy.
On Sunday at Hampden, the Steelmen were left fuming by referee Craig Thomson’s decision to award a penalty to the Treble winners and send off defender Cedric Kipre after the Frenchman made minimal contact with Scott Sinclair.
Celtic were already leading 1-0 through James Forrest and when Moussa Dembele made it 2-0 from the spot, there was no way back for the deflated ten men.
But Robinson has urged his side to harness that hurt and use it to end Celtic’s remarkable 65-match unbeaten domestic run that has won them the last four major Scottish trophies.
Speaking ahead of tonight’s league encounter at Fir Park, the second of three meetings between the teams in seven days, Robinson said: ‘It would be a huge consolation to end Celtic’s run — and that’s what we want to do. We always want to win football matches, whether it’s against Celtic, Aberdeen or Ross County.
‘But I think what Sunday has done is make the lads even more determined. Who knows if the penalty decision affected whether we would have won or lost the game? All I know is that it was going to be a really good cup final, and that was taken away.
‘But we are determined to make up for that and it (beating Celtic) would almost be like a trophy.
‘Celtic are a massive football club with huge resources and for little Motherwell to compete with them is huge. But we will compete with them again tonight. We will be giving absolutely everything to win — and then we want to win at Celtic Park on Saturday.’
Sinclair will be guaranteed a hot reception tonight from the Motherwell fans, but Robinson insists his players won’t be out for retribution.
‘Will I have to urge my players to keep a cool head? No, they will remain disciplined, as they have done all season,’ he added.
Fir Park midfielder Andy Rose backed his boss and insisted he would love to be in the team that finally removes Celtic’s cloak of invincibility.
‘You’ve got to give them credit for the run they are on,’ he said. ‘I don’t think going 65 matches unbeaten reflects badly on Scottish football. Celtic are a big club playing at the highest level in European football and you have to give Brendan Rodgers and his team a lot of credit.
‘In any league or any sport in the world, what they have done would be an unbelievable achievement.
‘But we’ve got three matches in a row against them this week and we would love to be the ones who end their run.
‘It would be great to end it. For us as a club to do it would be fantastic.
‘So many people at this club put in such hard work preparing for Sunday’s final. Winning the cup would have been a perfect way to repay them, but this is the next best thing. We will do our best and, hopefully, come up with a result.
‘We felt we went toe-to-toe with them on Sunday and we are all looking forward to getting back out there against Celtic on our patch on Wednesday night.’
Rose admits he spent Sunday night agonising over footage of Sinclair tumbling under minimal contact.
But he insists he is over it now, helped by a team meeting on Monday where the players vowed to use their anguish to fuel their top-six bid.
‘I watched the penalty incident over and over on Sunday night and it was difficult to take,’ he said.
‘That last half-hour playing against Celtic with ten men was hard to watch. We had put a lot into getting to the final — beating Aberdeen, beating Rangers — and our fans were proud of us.
‘To lose the final was disappointing, but we have to move on now and put it behind us because we have big matches ahead of us as a group.
‘If anything, what happened on Sunday in the final makes us even more determined as a group to succeed.
‘Yes, a tough decision went against us at Hampden. We fought hard and it was taken away from us too early — but that only feeds us more.
‘We had a great team meeting at the start of the week and we came to the conclusion that what happened has to make us more determined than ever. This can’t be where our season ends. We are right in the middle and there’s plenty to play for, so let’s push on together.
‘Right now, our focus is on Celtic on Wednesday night in the league. But if we can get back to Hampden in the Scottish Cup later this season, that would be brilliant.’
Meanwhile, Robinson has backed cup final fall guy Kipre to be playing in the English Premier League by the time he serves his one-match suspension in the Betfred Cup.
He said: ‘We considered appealing the red card, but we have previously made numerous appeals where we thought we had very good evidence and it has gone against us.
‘What that did was waste time and money for the football club and Cedric Kipre would have been sitting in front of a judge and jury on Thursday instead of preparing for a game on Wednesday.’