Dearth of fans takes edge off Goldson’s joy

Connor Goldson was delighted to score a double in Rangers’ 2- 0 victory at Celtic Park but admitted the absence of fans confused his goal celebrations.

The Old Firm fixture on Saturday was played behind closed doors for the first time due to coronavirus restrictions .

The Ibrox defender scored in each half to hand the visitors the welldeserved victory which took them four points clear of the Hoops at the top of the Premiership.

“When I scored the goals I didn’t really know what to do. There were no fans, no cameras,” the former Brighton defender said.

“I was delighted but it is not the same without the fans”

Neil Lennon took one positive in the shape of Celtic debutant Diego Laxalt.

The Hoops boss had to reshuffle his side after Nir Bitton, Hatem Elhamed, Ryan Christie and Odsonne Edouard were unavailable due to coronavirus issues, with James For rest and Christopher Jullien still injured.

Lennon decided to throw in the 27-year-old Uruguay wing- back, on loan from AC Milan, and give a second start to 20- year- old centre- back Stephen Welsh, while Patryk Klimala led the line with Albian Ajeti and

Leigh Griffiths, working their way back to full fitness, on the bench.

Asked about Laxalt, the Northern Irishman said: “It was difficult for him coming in but he looked strong and he put some really good balls in the box.

“His positional sense was good and he was comfortable in that environment.

“I thought young Welsh played really well considering, all the talk about before the game I thought he handled the game very well.”

Without looking to blame a depleted squad for the defeat, Lennon highlighted how far his squad was stretched.

He said: “You don’ t want to play too much on that, to look for excuses.

“But you have three strikers, Ajeti, Griffiths and Edouard not fit enough to start the game.

“You have Forrest out, you have Jullien out, Bitton, Elhamed, so we missed a lot of quality.

“But we still had a good team out there and I felt we should have done better.

“We should have been at least level at half-time and that would have given us a foothold in the game.

“But when we went 2-0 down it looked like we had run out of ideas and the subs really didn’ t have the impact we were looking for.”

Connor Goldson was unsure how to celebrate.