NO CLASS? NOT MY BHOYS

Rodgers’ Dons riposte as he defends ‘very sporting’ team

BRENDAN RoDgERs has rejected Aberdeen’s claims that his Celtic side ‘lacked class’ in their Betfred Cup final win at Hampden — and insists he would never stand for such behaviour.

Dons skipper graeme shinnie accused Mikael Lustig and scott Brown of crossing a line by celebrating in front of teenage midfielder Lewis Ferguson, with the swede’s conduct also condemned by Pittodrie boss Derek McInnes.

Lustig later rejected this version of events but admitted he had exchanged words with McInnes as they continued some ‘banter’ that started during the game.

Rodgers yesterday backed the defender’s story that he mistakenly believed the final whistle had gone before it had — and flatly rejected the accusation levelled at his players.

‘I was disappointed with that,’ said the Celtic manager. ‘I can understand the emotion when you lose a game of that magnitude, when you want it so much. I didn’t see Mikael Lustig goad the boy Ferguson at all.

‘I watched the game back when I went home and right towards the end — when the ball’s in the corner and the referee blows the whistle — it looks like the end of the game. Mika celebrates, as you would having won a cup final. But then he realises and recognises it’s not the end of the game. so, I don’t think there was any goading.

‘If you look at us as a team, look at our record, I think we’re a very sporting team considering every game we play is a huge pressure game. Every game for Celtic is a cup final, not just the actual cup finals.

‘The players, their record of how they play and in terms of the discipline perspective, have been exemplary. so, I can’t agree with that. some players give it out on the field. You have to be ready to take it.

‘If you’re a manager on a side of the field — and I say this generically — who gets involved with players then if something comes back to you, you have to be ready to take it back as well. I don’t go down the route that we’d lack any of those qualities.’

Asked if he would clamp down on his players’ behaviour if he felt it was inappropriate, Rodgers replied: ‘Always. It’s one of the values we set when I first arrived. In our organisation you need those values of how you want to work — respect is the very first one.’

shinnie fired the first salvo before the final by claiming Brown ‘probably hates me’.

Adamant that shinnie was wrong to base his assessment of Brown on the basis of his on-field persona, Rodgers said: ‘If he worked with him, I’m sure graeme would see him as one of the best professionals he’s come across. ‘In the game, Browny, like some players, they become a different character, and there are a lot of players like that. There’s a lot of small talk that you never hear of. It’s on the field it happens. ‘Jonny Hayes, before he came here, would probably have had an opinion of scott — I guarantee you, if you asked him now, it’d be the total opposite.’ Cutting shinnie a degree of slack for the circumstances in which his remarks were made, Rodgers added: ‘I can understand the raw emotion. They’ve lost their third cup final to us. That emotion is in the game, and players and managers are not robots. Particularly after a game like that where you’ve prepared so much. ‘And especially graeme, who is probably wanting to emulate some of the captains who have gone before at Aberdeen. so when you lose, it’s a tough one to take.’

Rodgers (left) is adamant the war of words did not take the shine off his seventh straight trophy success as Celtic manager.

‘It doesn’t detract,’ he said. ‘We’ve won a seventh trophy in a row and that’s an incredible achievement, one we’re proud to have done and it’s one we can reflect on.’

Tonight’s trip to Motherwell did curtail the celebrations, though.

‘I’m not a big drinker anyway and I don’t need to in terms of enjoying a situation,’ Rodgers explained. ‘of course it’s a great achievement. But we still have to be super professional and have a really busy period. Alcohol will not help.’

For full-back Kieran Tierney, the blizzard of fixtures in December was always going to curb any excess. The thrill of again serenading his fellow supporters in celebration with a megaphone was intoxicating enough.

‘You don’t get too much time to celebrate,’ he said. ‘In the changing room after the game, it was brilliant. The scenes were amazing and will live with me forever.

‘But when you go home on the sunday, you can’t even eat unhealthily. I wish it could have been a Chinese meal! But you have to keep doing the right things because there’s another game coming right away — that’s what you have to do to be successful.

‘Myself and the family have a small celebration, spend time together and that’s what’s important.’

Dedryck Boyata will miss tonight’s game with a hamstring strain but should feature again in December.

Now behind Rangers in the Premiership for the first time this season, albeit with a game in hand, Rodgers is eyeing his side’s eight games this month with relish.

‘People are expecting us to be satisfied and happy,’ he added. ‘But there’s no chance. We’re super hungry to succeed.

‘We’re on a great cycle of winning and the beauty is, being a young side, there’s still plenty of scope within that.’