Roberts: ‘No excuses, I should have scored’
ON-LOAN Celtic winger Patrick Roberts admits he let himself down after missing an open goal in a moment that will go down in Old Firm infamy.
Peter van Vossen’s name will forever be associated with him putting his shot over when he had a clear goal to aim at for Rangers in a derby match at Parkhead some 20 years ago this month. And no matter what Roberts goes on to do in his career, his cv will always include a moment which he found impossible to explain.
With his side 1-0 down, the on-loan Manchester City player had the easiest chance to equalise. Leigh Griffiths hit the post with a shot from the edge of the box, the ball rebounded to the Englishman only six yards out and the 19-year-old fired into the side-netting.
The miss rather strangely seemed to affect both teams for 10 minutes, and also the crowd in the Scottish Cup semi-final, as if nobody could quite believe what they had just witnessed.
But, at least Roberts was brave enough to front up after the game, which is more than can be said about some of his senior team-mates who opted not to face the media.
“I felt like I’d let myself down, personally,” mumbled Roberts with his hood up as if to cover his face. “Any other day, I would put that away. It just wasn’t meant to be today, obviously. I’m just devastated, we all are. That’s it.
“I should have scored it. There are no excuses for that. Too much time? No, I should be scoring.”
Roberts was actually one of Celtic better players. He gave Rangers captain Lee Wallace his toughest game in some years. Even after his mistake, the youngster went looking for the ball and continued to take on defenders.
He could become a star at the club over the next season, but that will only happen if the club has a clear-out as too many of those beside him on the park are nowhere close to his standard.
Roberts said: “Looking at the game overall, we weren’t good enough. The atmosphere was exactly what I’d expected. But, right now, it just feels rubbish. In the dressing room we were all absolutely distraught. To go out on penalties is the worst way we could exit this competition. Having said that, we just were not good today.
“Did we deserve to lose? On chances, we obviously had mine and Leigh Griffiths hit the bar. We scored twice to get back into the game. But we weren’t at our best today. Far from it.”
Kieran Tierney was another Celtic player to get pass marks, but his own performance offered no consolation.
“We were all gutted,” he said. “We were not at our best. Twice we had to come from behind and we shouldn’t have been in the position we were.
“It is just so hard to take and I just need to try and clear my head and come back for the next game. We knew what kind of team Rangers were and that they like to pass the ball around. They did that.”