Swift reaction to Livingston defeat
game. But sometimes it’s good for you as well.
“We’ve had a wake-up call before when we’ve lost the lead during the season and we’ve managed to bounce back.
“This team has that grit and willingness to win games. Today wasn’t our day, we didn’t perform as well. But it’s a long season and we know we can do better.”
Brown added: “It was a hard day. Livi made it extremely difficult for us, they were very aggressive on the front foot and defended well and we didn’t play as well as we probably should have on the day.
“They are well organised and played really well. We didn’t play as well as we could have.”
Brown admitted that Christie deserved to be red-carded for his foul on Scott Robinson – but questioned why match official Willie Collum hadn’t punished Keaghan Jacobs for a challenge on Jonny Hayes.
“Ryan is not trying to hurt anybody,” he said. “It’s not in his nature, he is a great lad, very honest and works as hard as anybody does in training.
“It’s one of those and we should try and dig him out a little bit more because of how well he has done for us this season. We’ve won with 10 men before.
“But the late tackle over on the far side was a two-footed lunge as well. At that time the game is gone, but you’ve got to be consistent.” CELTIC manager Neil Lennon said he was concerned about his side’s trip to Livingston coming so soon after the high of the midweek win over Cluj, and he had every right to be as Gary Holt’s men chalked up a famous victory.
A red card for Ryan Christie after 25 minutes hampered the champions, and Scott Robinson made Livingston’s advantage pay just after the break with a fine opener.
The outstanding Lyndon Dykes then finished brilliantly with just over quarter of an hour to go to finish the game as a contest.
Livingston were doing their best to smother Celtic early on, and they created a decent opening of their own as Nicky Devlin did brilliantly down the right to get to the byline and fire a low ball across that Jon
Guthrie steered just wide.
A cleverly worked free-kick then saw Stevie Lawless play a one-two with Robinson, with Lawless getting a low shot away that Fraser Forster had to look lively to deal with on his 200th appearance for Celtic.
That seemed to jolt the visitors awake, and Odsonne Edouard immediately went up the other end and brought the first save out of Matija Sarkic with a decent effort.
Their task was made much more difficult though as Christie had a rush of blood to the head, flying into a needless challenge on Robinson in midfield and catching him high on the shin with his studs. It was a certain red card, leaving Celtic with over an hour to negotiate with just 10 men.
They made it to the break, but just minutes after the restart Livingston took a deserved lead. Lawless did well on the right, feeding the ball into Robbie Crawford at the edge of the area. He was given all the time in the world to get his head up and slide a lovely ball through for Robinson, who beat the offside trap and fired home past Forster.
Lennon responded by throwing on Vakoun Issouf Bayo for James Forrest, and the more direct approach started to pay dividends. Mohamed
Elyounoussi got in down the left and had a shot parried by
Sarkic, with the ball scrambled clear just before Bayo could apply the finish.
Celtic were caught cold though at the other end as a freekick from Sarkic from just inside his own half evaded the entire visiting backline, allowing Dykes to latch onto the ball and expertly dink it over the head of Forster and in.
It was no more than Celtic deserved for their defending, and the final outcome was exactly what both sides deserved on the day.