Scott Brown steals the show at Dundee
He may have quit the international game, but the Celtic midfielder proves he’s still captain fantastic with winning goal at Dens Park, writes Graeme Macpherson Dundee Celtic
GORDON Strachan did not try to talk Scott Brown out of his decision to retire from international football. He may be regretting that now. While Strachan and his Scotland squad begin their preparations ahead of the World Cup double-header against Lithuania and Slovakia, the Celtic midfielder will be putting his feet up and enjoying an extended break. Given his impressive start to the season, he has earned it.
Scotland’s loss, then, continues to be Celtic’s gain. Just days after more than holding his own against the might of Manchester City, Brown was the best player on the park against Dundee, scoring the only goal of the game as Celtic extended their undefeated start to the domestic season.
Brown seems to have benefited more than most from Brendan Rodgers’ summer installation as manager and looks a far cry from the player who often appeared exhausted and exasperated towards the end of the last campaign. Rodgers revealed even he has been pleasantly surprised with how his captain has ascended to new heights under his tutelage.
“From the outside looking in, I always saw him as that one who could run and sometimes players get labelled with something,” said the manager. “But he can play football. I think he has a wonderful touch and awareness, he can play short or long, and has a calmness in his finish.
“He could have played for one of the top Premier League teams, but thankfully for me, he has stayed here. I said to him when I met him that hopefully I could improve him as a player. That will help him play for longer and hopefully he can impose his great qualities.”
Rodgers’ suggestion that Brown could evolve into a central defender in the autumn of his career was met with a typically tongue-incheek response. “I’m a goalscoring midfielder!” he laughed after his first league goal of the season. “A No 10. I’m trying to go forward, and he’s pulling me back?”
There were no regrets, however, over his decision to retire from international football. “I enjoyed my time with Scotland, I loved every single moment, especially working with Gordon,” he said. “But for my body and my legs, I decided to call time on it and that seems to be working for me. It will do me the world of good to get a few days off here and there.”
He capped another stellar individual display by scoring the only goal of the game early in the second half following a sleepy opening period that Celtic had dominated without creating much. Brown started and finished the move, driving forward with purpose before slipping in Moussa Dembele. When the Frenchman was eventually crowded out by a gaggle of Dundee defenders, the ball made its way back to Brown via Scott Sinclair and the Scot swept a composed finish across Scott Bain and into the far corner of the net.
Sinclair was thwarted in his attempts to score for a seventh consecutive league game but had Celtic’s best two chances of the first half. The first after eight minutes, a curling shot that appeared to be arrowing into the far corner, was pushed away by Bain, while the second, right before the interval, was also well saved by the goalkeeper. Jimmy McGrory’s club record of scoring in his first eight league games remains intact for the time being.
Rodgers admitted his players were very tired after their midweek exertions against City – “they’re not robots” – and it showed in a team display that was perfunctory rather than stylish. Up against a five-man Dundee defence set up to frustrate, Celtic lacked their usual fluency although may feel they ought to have had a penalty following a first-half tangle in the box between Cammy Kerr and Erik Sviatchenko.
Dundee have not won a match since the opening league game of the season and never really looked like causing an upset here, giving Craig Gordon so little to do that Celtic could have played without a goalkeeper and still kept their first league clean sheet of the season. A first-half header from Dutch striker Yordi Teijsse that drifted wide was the sum of their efforts on goal, but manager Paul Hartley was not overly despondent.
“We were up against a topquality team today, so credit to my players,” he said. “Celtic never really cut us open. If we perform like that for the rest of the season, we should be fine.”