O’Riley hails cool Celts for coping with the title heat
NOW seemingly as inevitable as night following day, Celtic’s 54th league championship won’t go down in the annals of history as the club’s most spectacular. Few that have gone before, however, will have tasted quite as sweet.
The bleak midwinter that saw Brendan Rodgers’ side lose backto-back games to Kilmarnock and Hearts felt all the chillier for the resurgence Rangers were enjoying under Philippe Clement.
Seven points behind at the stage where the Belgian succeeded Michael Beale, Rangers stretched two points in front when they won at St Johnstone in February.
After two underwhelming transfer windows, Rodgers’ great Celtic return threatened to turn into a damp squib.
The narrative since has had a two-way dynamic. The players that have failed so many previous managers at Ibrox failed Clement yet again.
Having unwisely celebrated a home draw with Celtic like a victory, they floundered in Dingwall and lost further ground at Dens Park.
Celtic, meanwhile, did what they appear to be hard-wired to do in these situations. They kept calm and carried on, taking 19 points from a possible 21 to put them within touching distance of the trophy. In testing times, their mental strength was again remarkable. ‘I think it says everything,’ said midfielder Matt O’Riley. ‘We always come alive towards the end of the season.
‘That’s when it matters. We’ve got a lot of big characters in the changing room which obviously helps drive us in these final moments.
‘I think everyone is still feeling really calm, which is the most important thing.’
Much pointed towards a Celtic victory here. Rodgers’ record in the fixture is off the charts. The momentum was with his team. The Rangers players would also not have been human if they were not affected to some degree by the white-hot partisan atmosphere.
But delivering when the expectations are such is rarely easy. Rodgers’ players may have made the ending of the match unnecessarily nervy for their supporters, but they prevailed when it mattered most.
Asked what the key was, O’Riley smiled: ‘We scored more goals than them. We were just really intense from the start, I think.
‘The press was really good, and we took our chances in the first half well. We still need to get better at managing a game and that also comes from taking our chances in the second half. These are games where you need to win. And we did. That was the main thing.’
The reality was that Rangers should have been put out of their misery long before the final whistle.
O’Riley’s weak spot-kick after he was felled by Mohamed Diomande prolonged the issue.
Although reluctant to make excuses, the midfielder felt a
four-minute delay for VAR to confirm the obvious did not help his cause.
‘I was really confused to be honest because I thought it was really obvious, the pen,’ he reflected. ‘I don’t know if VAR tried to overturn it, but I thought it was quite strange.
‘There are no excuses when you miss a penalty. But, of course, it was quite a long wait.’
His perfect left-foot strike to open the scoring in the 35th minute will live longer in the memory. He added: ‘It was one of those moments when you aren’t really thinking much. My touch was good. It put me in the right place and I knew there was a bit of space to his left.
‘I struck it well. I’d struck a few before that as well that I thought I was hitting quite well.
‘The pitch is lovely, so it rolls really nice. I was pretty confident.’
Man for man, Celtic simply performed at a higher level than their opponents. And when that happens, the result tends to take care of itself.
The display of skipper Callum McGregor belied the fact he’s still recovering from an Achilles injury.
‘I thought he was our man of the match,’ added O’Riley. ‘I thought Daizen (Maeda) was great as well with his work-rate considering he’s been injured for a little while. He’s come back quicker than most other people ever should because he’s a robot.
‘Cal is just great. He always turns up for these games. That’s when you need your captain at his best. We can always rely on him. It’s great to have him around.’
After seven added-on minutes, the scenes at the end as Rodgers’ players greeted their supporters felt, for all the world, like the start of a title party. Insisting the players still wouldn’t get ahead of themselves, O’Riley said: ‘We are obviously in a better place to win the league now. That ultimately is what it’s about for the supporters as well.
‘We’re six points clear with two games to go. In that sense, it’s relief that we’ve put ourselves in a good position.’
McGregor also stressed that the celebrations will only truly begin once the line has been crossed.
‘Of course, mathematically we understand where we are now,’ said the skipper. ‘Two games to go, six points clear — but nothing is won yet. We have two difficult games to go.
‘Rugby Park is a difficult place to go. We lost there earlier in the season, so we understand how hard that is going to be. We have got to rest and recover and then we give everything we have there.’