GERS GAVE US THE ELBOW
I was smashed in face and Flanagan should have been off but we were so poor it didn’t matter, says Brown
SCOTT BROWN was shocked that none of the officials spotted Jon Flanagan’s elbow in his face. But not as shocked as he was at the desperate nature of Celtic’s losing display. And the Parkhead skipper insists his team have to put smiles back on to fans’ faces by sealing the treble Treble after a second Ibrox calamity of the campaign. Brown was left dejected at the dismal performance that led to a second defeat of the campaign at the home of Rangers. From start to finish the champions were second best. All across the pitch they were lacklustre and Brown had no excuses. Naturally, he was miffed at referee Kevin Clancy’s refusal to flash a red card in the face of Flanagan after the Ibrox full-back smacked an elbow on to his, and at the whistler’s assistant Douglas Ross for not seeing it. Alfredo Morelos was red-carded for planting one on to the Hoops captain’s chops at Parkhead six weeks ago and Brown said: “Another one to the face. Surprisingly, somebody didn’t see that again. “But there’s always a linesman there who can see it from the corner flag. “There are two people there, both said they didn’t properly see it, so it’s a hard one for them. “The ref said it was a yellow because it didn’t hit me in the face. But it’s part and parcel. At the end of the day, it wouldn’t have changed the outcome.” That final sentence hurt Brown far more than any connection from Flanagan. In December, the disjointed champions were run ragged across Ibrox as they lost 1-0 and they vowed it would not happen again. However, it’s exactly what did happen. The only difference this time was Brendan Rodgers wasn’t the boss and Rangers added a second goal that their display deserved. It was an absolute sickener for the skipper, who said: “We didn’t deserve to win, Rangers played better than we did and it wasn’t the best performance overall. “We didn’t start well. The game plan didn’t go well after two minutes. It was a great free-kick, to be BY CRAIG SWAN fair. One of those deliveries that if somebody gets a nick, it’s going in anyway. Rangers deserved the victory more than we did because we didn’t compete, we didn’t press as well as we could have done.
“Rangers were better, we didn’t start well, didn’t follow our plan, didn’t press as hard as we could, didn’t play as well as we should.
“There’s always a motivation to come here. The last two games here, we’ve not played as well as we should have done. These things happen now and then but it shouldn’t happen, especially coming here.
“We needed to win the battle before we could play but we didn’t start well and gave them the upper hand after two minutes.
“But we’ve got a league title, we’re going to hopefully win a treble and that would put a lot of smiles on a lot of fans’ faces.
“We’ve got a Cup Final to look forward to, Hearts in the final game of the season and the chance to pick up a trophy. We’ve got to put those smiles back on everyone’s faces as this wasn’t the best.”
Brown tried to look at the bigger picture over the entire campaign and said: “It’s our first defeat since here last time, so you look at the season we’ve had, it’s been fantastic.
“The season is not based on one fixture, one game. It’s based on how well we’ve played all season.
“We’ve dominated the league for the last eight years. We need to make sure we continue to do that, do it in the Cup Final and then next season as well.”
Brown is right to concentrate on the positives and the chance of another domestic clean sweep for the third successive term but there is no doubt huge work is needed at Parkhead over the summer.
No matter the result against Hearts at Hampden on Saturday week, big changes are required. Neil Lennon has admitted it is a massive rebuild that has to be undertaken whether it is on his watch or not.
And Brown added: “Yeah, we’ve got a lot of players leaving, guys out of contract as well. Whatever manager comes in, I’m sure he’ll bring quality, whether that’s Lenny or somebody else.
“We’ve got Neil here. He’s been fantastic since coming in. How was his mood afterwards? It’s always the same coming here. Never great getting beaten. The lads are disappointed but we just need to go again on Sunday and then we’ve got a Cup Final to look forward to.”
We didn’t deserve to win, Rangers played better than we did. We didn’t compete SCOTT BROWN