IT’S EASY AS PIE
Skipper Scott has last laugh for Hoops
CELTIC captain Scott Brown l ast night laughed off the pelting he received from the home fans at Pittodrie after firing the champions to a clean sweep against Aberdeen.
Brown started and finished the move for his 49th-minute strike as Ronny Deila’s men opened a 14point gap over their second-placed opponents at the top of the Premiership table.
It was a sweet moment for the midfielder after being sent off on his last visit to the ground in November, but his celebration in front of the Dons fans drew an angry response.
A pie was hurled from the stand, but Brown brushed the incident aside. ‘Someone threw a pie at me and I was going to eat it, but it fell out of my hands,’ he joked.
‘That’s probably just as well because the gaffer wouldn’t have liked it — there are too many carbs in it.
‘It might have given me a bit of extra energy but I couldn’t grab it. If someone had thrown money I would have picked it up — I’m from Fife, after all. That would have bought me a pie back home.
‘These things happen. I don’t pay too much attention to it. It’s banter and for 90 minutes they can give me as much as they want, it doesn’t bother me.
‘I can give it back but when the game is finished, it’s all over as far as I’m concerned.’
Brown tapped in his goal from close range following terrific setup play from Stuart Armstrong to make it four wins out of four against their nearest challengers.
Celtic’s title coronation was confirmed last weekend but the Scotland international insisted there was never a chance of them slacking off.
‘We said that we wouldn’t take our foot off the accelerator,’ he added.
‘Aberdeen have been our closest rivals, so we wanted to show them respect.
‘We wanted to come here, put our strongest team out and show how good we are. I think we managed to do that.’
Parkhead manager Deila was delighted with the outcome and lavished praise on Brown’s influ- ence throughout the season.
‘You know what you get from Broony every time,’ said the Norwegian.
‘He is a class player and is someone you just love to have in your team.
‘I understand that people outside our team don’t like him so much because he is so good.
‘He gets abuse from other fans but that is a compliment for him.
‘He is used to it now. I think he enjoys it, rather than use up his energy on it.
‘He is a fair player. He will go tough into challenges but he is also fair.
‘Scott loves winning and is great with his team-mates. He is a role model inside the dressing room and that is what you want.
‘Aberdeen played very well today, so it is a very good achievement to beat them four times this season.’