Brown: Ibrox defeats gave us a blueprint for success
SCOTT BROWN says that Celtic heeded the lessons from their defeats at Ibrox last season to turn the tables on Rangers in their 2-0 win yesterday.
The Celtic captain was impressive as his team deservedly came away from the home of their city rivals with three points for the first time in three visits, and he says that manager Neil Lennon deserves credit for the gameplan that paved the way to victory.
Celtic pushed Rangers high up the park and got an early foothold in the match before goals from Odsonne Edouard and Jonny Hayes confirmed their superiority on the day. And Brown says that his manager’s tweaks to their tactics played a massive role in delivering the crucial win.
“Coming here the manager wanted us to play a bit higher up the park and not take too many chances at the back,” Brown said.
“We let in an early goal in the last game, so we learned our lessons.
“For me, it’s about coming here and showing that you’ve got the quality. Going away from home it’s always hard, you have to defend but we can catch teams on the counter-attack as well.
“We have pace everywhere. Jonny [Hayes] goes on and Mikey [Johnston] goes off, and you’ve got James [Forrest] on the right as well, so it’s great.
“For the young ones coming through, to win away from home, that’s what this club is all about.
“It’s about bringing young players through and showing their talent in these big games. Yet again, they have done that. It was a great performance from the lads.
“We defended really, really well. We came here and knew our jobs, knew what we had to do, and we delivered on the park.”
Lennon cited a feeling that his team were being written off in the build-up to the game as an added motivation, but for Brown, both on a personal and collective level, no added incentive is ever required.
“The motivation or us is that our fans want us to win week-in, week-out whether we’re at home or away, so there’s a lot of pressure on us all the time,” he said.
“For us, it’s just another game. We’ve got to make sure we win it, we get the three points and it was a good performance from us. I think that’s what we managed to do.
“To be fair I don’t read anything that you guys write anyway, not because of what you write, but because I canny read! I just keep ticking over, I’ll keep going as long as I possibly can. I enjoy playing football, I play with a smile on my face.
“For me, whether I play or whether I’m on the bench, the main thing for me is whether the team wins.
“It’s not about me individually, it’s about the team collectively.”
While not underplaying the significance of the win over their closest rivals, Brown says that the timing of the game – coming as it did just four matches into the league season – means that the psychological impact of the result on the title race will not be decisive.
And he sounded a note of caution to his team-mates to ensure they retain their focus in the coming weeks.
“It’s far too early for that,” he said. “For me personally, it’s about recovering and making sure we go again.
“We’ve got a long season ahead, it’s about 60-odd games for us, so it’s about winning as many of them as we possibly can.”