Brown takes ‘another one to the face’ but ref not to blame for defeat
So second rate was Celtic’s performance in succumb - ing to Rangers at Ibrox yesterday that the title winners’ captain, Scott Brown, made little of a first-rate referee grievance the visitors had on a torturous day that condemned them to a 2-0 loss.
Television pictures seemed to show Jon Flanagan swinging an elbow in the face of Brown as they jostled ahead of corner-kick in the 51st minute. Official Kevin Clancy adjudged the offence worthy of only a yellow but, even with the scoreline then only 1-0, the 33-year-old did not attempt to present the failure to red card the fullback as key to the result.
“Another one to the face…” Brown said rue fully, that could have been taken as either a reference to the elbow he received from Alfredo Morelos in the last derby that resulted in the Colombian’s dismissal or a straight-arm whack to his jaw from Ryan Kent in the same game that was only punished retrospectively. “Surprisingly, somebody didn’t see that again.
“He[ Clancy] said it was a yellow because it didn’t hit me in the face. 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. But it’ s part and parcel.
“At the end of the day, it wouldn’ t have changed the outcome. Rangers were better, we didn’t start well, we didn’t follow our game plan, didn’t press as hard as we could, didn’t play as well as we should.
“But for us, now, it’ s about how we look forward. We’ve got a Scottish Cup final to look forward to, Heart sin the final game of the season – and the chance to pick up a trophy. We’ve got to put smiles back on everyone’ s faces. Today wasn’t the best – but we’ve got a chance to win a treble.”
Even an extraordinary third straight clean sweep of the domestic honours won’t disguise the need for an extensive overhaul of the current squad. Interim manager Neil Lennon has been unequivocal over the need for such re casting, which seems as up in the air as Lennon’s future as Celtic have, at times, wearily stomped towards the end of the season in the near three months they have operated without a permanent manager.
“We’ve got a lot of players leaving, guys out of contract as well,” said Brown. “We’ll need to see who’s in charge and see what he’ s going to do. Whatever manager comes in, I’m sure he’ll bring
quality. I’m sure he’ll have been watching the last five or six games, whether that’s Lenny or somebody else.”
Brown rejected the suggestion that the decision not to seek an immediate permanent replacement when Brendan Rodgers departed in February could be factored in to the club’s unspectacular form since.
“No, we’ve got Neil here. He’s been fantastic since coming in ,” said the Celtic captain .“It’ s our first defeat since here last time [in December]. So you look at the season we’ve had, it’s been fantastic. The season is not based on one fixture, one game. We’ve dominated the league for the last eight years. We need to make sure we continue to do that in the cup final – and next season as well.”