COUNTY EXPECTED THE ALAMO AT PARKHEAD

THEY expected the Alamo — with hearts pounding and all Celtic guns blazing. Coll Donaldson admits it felt utterly surreal to calmly tie up a famous victory within an eerily quiet Celtic Park. The central defender was part of a Ross County defence underpinning a faultless game plan from Stuart Kettlewell’s men. Time seemed to slow to a crawl during the second half as the Staggies comfortably resisted the ailing champions, but the 25-year-old still expected a thunderous late barrage. The siege failed to materialise and Alex Iacovitti’s headed goal saw the match end with barely a whimper from Neil Lennon’s team. Donaldson admitted: ‘There wasn’t really a point, until the end, where I thought: “That’s it, we’ve won”, but it wasn’t what we expected at all. When you play away to Celtic and Rangers, you expect the last 15 minutes to be like the Alamo. ‘But on Sunday it never came, really. It was surreal. ‘At Celtic Park there is a big clock and, during every break in the play, I was looking up and I swear someone slowed it down in the second half. ‘The fact there are no fans in maybe helps the away team because they don’t have 50 or 60,000 behind them cheering them on. That big crowd definitely gives the Old Firm a lift. ‘They come out to the songs, Celtic have the huddle and they get cheered on when they’re chasing a game. ‘That definitely gives them a boost, it might not affect you as an opposition player but it does help them. ‘Without it, you can hear what the guy next to you is saying so it helps organise your defence at times. ‘That makes the defenders’ job so much better. We were calm — there wasn’t much panicked defending.’ Donaldson admits some of manager Kettlewell’s comments after the defeat to ten-man Kilmarnock were savage. But he insists the players took them in the right spirit and responded. ‘The gaffer was critical of us but we’re all big enough and ugly enough to take it on the chin,’ added Donaldson. ‘There are times where managers have a go at their players where it’s not justified, but this time it was.’