WELCOME TO SCOTLAND
Revitalised Broony gets Celts over the line after midweek exertions and now plans to savour welcome international breather
Celtic barely got out of third gear. They didn’t have to.
But Scott Brown still found overdrive for the one split second it took to get the job done.
The sk ipper ’ s forceful determination earned the Hoops their three points when he started and finished the move two minutes after the break which finally broke Dundee and got him his first league goal of the
season. All they then had to do was hang on to their first clean sheet in the league to round off a brilliant week’s work.
And wi th 80 per cent possession at times and not a shot on target to trouble Craig Gordon, they were never in danger.
Br ow n’s i nt er n a t i on a l retirement means he now has
time to recharge the batteries for his club ahead of a 17- day spell which will see the Hoops face Borussia Monchengladbach twice, Rangers in a Betfred Cup semi and three league games.
And t he 31- y ea r - o l d midfielder admitted: “It will do me the world of good to get a few days off here and there.
“I enjoyed my time with Scotland. I loved every single moment, especially working with Gordon Strachan.
“But for my body and my legs, I decided to call time on it and that seems to be working for me.
“It wasn’t hard to get up for this one at all after midweek, though. It’s still a league match and a huge one for us.
“We wanted to continue our league form and kick on after Wednesday night.
“Dundee gave us a great game, it’s always hard at Dens.”
Brown also hai led boss Brendan Rodgers for the side’s advances since he replaced Ronny Deila at the helm. He said: “Comparing this se a s on to t he last one, it has been
night and day. We feel good and that’s all coming from the gaffer.
“We all have belief and that wasn’t there last season.
“We had a few 0- 0s at Dens and even at Celtic Park our play was slow. But we press high now, it’s intense from start to finish and we will get fitter. The rest is also good now.”
The Hoops started as they had finished on Wednesday night against Man City – on the front foot – and Cammy Kerr put himself under heavy pressure with an 11th-minute booking for a foul on Tom Rogic.
One he was lucky he didn’t add to within 30 seconds for a rash challenge through the back of Erik Sviatchenko in the box which was hast i ly – and wrongly – waved away by Andrew Dallas. Chasing a first win over the Hoops at
Dens in 28 years, Paul Hartley’s side were toiling to break out, their back five giving them solidity but very few out balls in a game being played almost exclusively in their half.
Keeper Scott Bain had already done well to deny a cute early curler from Scott Sinclair – who saw his hopes of matching Jimmy McGrory’s record of eight consecutive goals in his first eight league games fall at the seventh hurdle – and the Dundee No.1 did well to pluck another Rogic free-kick from the top corner.
Inevitably maybe, the tempo died down after half an hour.
With only one change from midweek – Jozo Simunovic in for Kolo Toure at the back – it was impossible to believe that 90 minutes of bedlam with City hadn’t taken some kind of toll.
Still, even on the odd occasion when Celtic were on the defensive, they were still going old school, leaving three up when defending corners in the hope of a quick break.
Dunde e were prov ing a hard mountain to climb though, particularly t he impres s ive Kevin Gomis.
And even when they did find a chink in the armour, Sinclair was denied both by Bain and a very late offside flag. Dundee also had an effort at goal themselves three minutes before the break – their first and last. A sweet piece of work from Faissal El Bakhtaoui found Yordi Teijsse at the near post but the Dutch striker headed over. Celts had one last chance to break the deadlock before the interval, Bain again denying Sinclair after a great charge to the dead-ball line by Kieran Tierney.
But ever y piece of praise Hartley will have l av ished on hi s side at half- time for their resilience at the back was rendered worthless two minutes into the second half. Brown had been at the heart of all Celts’ possession and once again he was their driving force, feeding Moussa Dembele.
Although the Frenchman was stopped in his tracks, his skipper had stayed with the play and was right there to smash home as the ball was clipped back out of the six-yard box by Sinclair. Even at
that point, it felt like enough for the champions.
Dundee were given a little more room to keep the ball in the middle of the park but they had nothing that was going to penetrate the ever- more impressive pairing of Simunovic and Sviatchenko.
Rodgers tried to inject some life by bringing on a highly motivated Leigh Griffiths for Rogic after the Aussie’s now customary hour.
After watching Dembele bang in eight goals in 17 days, the former Dundee man would have loved nothing better than to get himself on the scoresheet.
But the game died a death in the last 20 minutes.
Usually, you’d worry that one goal was never enough, that it was precarious, especially for a team who haven’t had a clean sheet in the league all season.
Not this time, though.