‘Disgraceful’ challenge from Davies torpedoes chance of County win
It was little surprise to hear Brendan Rodgers make a scathing attack on Andrew Davies for committing “one of the worst” challenges he had seen since coming to Scotland.
The stamp, into the nether regions of Scott Brown as he lay on the ground, was as ugly a misdemeanour as you could have the misfortune to see in a game.
It torpedoed his team’s chances of winning the game and, in that it potentially leaves him facing a ban of several games, could yet well sabotage the Staggies’ hopes of remaining in the Premiership.
“I feel sorry for the Ross County staff trying to take this team and keep them in the league and I feel for the supporters travelling all the way down,” said Rodgers.
“You’ve got your captain, who has probably got his most important game on Tuesday night (against Partick Thistle), and he makes a really poor challenge. “Jozo Simunovic gets two games for a slight elbow so I don’t know what that will be.
“As you saw, Scott got up and got on with the game but there is no doubt the challenge on him today was disgraceful.
“We’ve seen a lot of challenges where there are question marks over them, but that there today was one of the worst I’ve seen since I’ve been up here.
“There’s no intent to play the ball there. That was really dangerous – and only someone of that toughness and robustness could get up and play on.
“There are one or two maybe trying to make a name for themselves by obviously trying to put in those sort of tackles.”
Strong stuff, but it was a jarring moment, made all the more peculiar by the fact that by that point Davies’ team were already trailing.
Out wide on the left corner of the County box, Scott Sinclair wasn’t posing any obvious threat.
Jason Naismith, though, allowed himself to get caught out by the winger’s sharp turn, whipping the legs out from under him and referee Steven Mclean could hardly do anything but award a penalty. From there it was Moussa Dembele against Aaron Mccarey. The County keeper guessed and dived early to his right, Celtic’s Frenchman placed the ball to his left and it was 1-0.
As if going a goal down wasn’t a sufficient handicap for a team who had never won any of their previous top-flight meetings with Celtic, the Highlanders then further sabotaged their chances by going a man down too.
Davies’s action infuriated the normally placid Stuart Armstrong who had to be restrained after sprinting in to remonstrate.
“I am just very defensive of him!” said the Celtic midfielder.
“It didn’t look nice. What upset me most is that it was really late. It was too late to be a natural tackle.
“But Scott is fine. He is a brave boy.”
The red card made a big difference.
Already a goal up and with extra space and time to play with, Celtic smoothly took the game away from their opponents.
Armstrong made it 2-0 soon after the break, firing low into the corner of the net through a tangle of legs.
Then when James Forrest slid a ball into the path of Tom Rogic, the Australian showed lovely technique to first control the ball with his left then stroke it past sub keeper Scott Fox to make it three.
The match won, Rodgers had the luxury of being able to bring on Leigh Griffiths, fit again after injury, and Paddy Roberts.
County’s interim manager Stuart Kettlewell was meanwhile glad to see the final whistle come with no further controversy.
“Andrew’s apologised to everybody and I think that’s what pros do.
“It’s what a captain would do in that kind of situation and he has done.
“He’s said sorry to his teammates as well.
“For us now it is all about Tuesday’s game (at home to Partick Thistle).
“It is massive, there’s no getting away from that.