THAT WAS BAINFUL TO WATCH
Scott’s still livid at losing clean sheet record and believes Well’s response to goal was pathetic and embarrassing
SCOTT BAIN went to bed boiling on Sunday night and was still stewing yesterday morning as he warned Motherwell the gloves are off the next time the sides square up.
The Celtic keeper was seething at the sneaky goal from the “Stealmen” at Parkhead on Sunday. All hell broke loose when Gboly Ariyibi tucked the ball in the net after James Scott intercepted a throw-in that was expected to be returned to the Hoops who had stuck the ball out for an injury to Ryan Christie.
Bain blamed the players and Fir Park gaffer Stephen Robinson for the flashpoint in the 4-1 victory and warned if he has it his way Celts will return the favour with interest against Well next time around.
The shot-stopper knows it was a minor fuzzing of the bigger picture.
Celtic won the match to remain eight points clear at the top of the table.
But he was furious his run of eight clean sheets on the spin came to an end in such controversial circumstances.
And as for Well getting the ball back if the shoe’s on the other foot next time? Don’t bank on it. Bain said: “If it was up to me? No. Not a chance. The amount of work we put into those games before with the clean sheets, the way we defended, and it’s gone out of the window for something that shouldn’t happen in football.
“For us to come in and them to say, ‘You won the game anyway,’ that’s just absolutely pathetic.
“We won the game because we were the better team and deserved to win.
“To try to do that, to try to get away with that and try to blame it on a young lad, it’s just embarrassing.
“We walk in and they said well you won 4-1 anyway.
“That’s not the point. It is done now. I was boiling on Sunday night. I was okay on Monday, well, I was until we started talking about it.
“It was disappointing to lose the record like that. Not that we really thought or spoke about it but I don’t think we were too far away from getting to the record of clean sheets and we’d got there by playing some very good football.
“It’s disappointing. Something I’ve never seen before. It’s pretty embarrassing, pretty pathetic they felt they had to try that to score a goal.
“But it happened and we go from there.
“I’m sure they woke up this morning and were a bit embarrassed of how they’ve handled it.”
Robinson reckoned it was just youngster Scott being a bit naive. Bain is not having it though and the Well boss copped it as well for choosing to ignore the mess.
When asked if the kid could point to inexperience, Bain said: “So, what he has not watched football before? He’s not played a game before?
“Youth team levels all the way up, it happens at every
level. But I think if you are the manager you have to rectify the situation. He tried to blame it on a young lad but you’d got the chance to rectify the situation after and they don’t do it.
“It’s happened in football before and you always, for respect and sportsmanship, should let the other team score because throughout football if you kick the ball out for an injury you always give the ball back to the opposing team.
“I don’t understand what he was thinking. He’s tried to blame it on a young lad but he’s in charge.
“So between him and the rest of the players they can sort it out. But obviously they didn’t want to. They wanted to try and get a second goal and get a point or go on to win the game.
“I was more than a little bit happy when Odsonne Edouard put that free-kick in.
“Most of the boys were angry and they have the right to be.
“They have the right to be angry and for five or 10 minutes it disjointed us a little bit and they came into the game.
“But after the match against Valencia, and how much all the boys put into that game, and to power through again and get another two goals to win comfortably says a lot about the character in the team.”
The naughty Motherwell goal didn’t damage the Hoops too much. The response on Sunday to the setback was emphatic and while the clean-sheet record might have gone the bandwagon rolled on.
Next stop is Tynecastle where Bain is not expecting any favours either against a Hearts side who have tripped up Celts a couple of times on their own patch in recent times.
The Jambos ended the Parkhead side’s 69-game unbeaten run last season then put the boot in again in Gorgie earlier this campaign with a 1-0 success. Hibs await in the Scottish Cup quarter-finals at the weekend and Bain knows the double header against the capital clubs could prove pivotal. The keeper said: “It’s a huge week but every game is huge at this stage. We don’t want to be dropping any points. “Tynecastle is a difficult venue. We’ll need to be strong, brave and powerful. “We’ve got the Hibs game after that but we’re focused on one step at a time.”