It hasn’t taken long for Celtic midfielder Matt O’Riley to catch the Parkhead bug as his post-match interview with the club shows.
O’Riley produced a simply stunning performance to down Rangers at Celtic Park and surge Ange Postecoglou’s men to the top of the Premiership. It was a landmark day for the manager and the rest of the first team as the title-challenge gauntlet has been firmly thrown down by the Hoops.
One of the star performers was indeed that man O’Riley, who has now impressed in 3 games out of 3 so far against Dundee United, Hearts, and Rangers respectively.
And as he took part in a post-match interview with Celtic TV last night, he was clearly left absolutely lost for words:
“Yes I can’t compare that to anything I’ve ever been in, no, no chance. I can’t actually hear my own voice right now so that says enough. No it’s mental, a crazy experience. I’m actually struggling to put it into words.
“But honestly, in terms of fans in the world, I think we’ve got the best fans in the world honestly. After that night – I’ve never seen anything like it in my life. I’ve been to a lot of football games, Champions League games, but that, even for a Scottish Premiership game, it’s crazy so thank you to the fans for that because it was mental.”
Celtic fans show their true power once again as Rangers absolutely blown away
Sometimes you can tell when players are just paying some lip service to the supporters. Their words can come across as generic and without any real emotion attached to them. You simply couldn’t say that about how O’Riley addresses the Celtic crowd last night.
He was absolutrly taken aback. Not quite what he was used to at MK Dons evidently. It was the biggest festival of football he’s ever been a part of, but you wouldn’t have known it watching him boss his Glasgow derby debut.
Even when Matt tired as the game went on, he was still keeping things simple and finding his teammates in space with his footballing intelligence. Rangers couldn’t get near him, and it’s no wonder he’s finding himself becoming a fans-favourite despite only having been at the club for 2 weeks.
But what last night also showed was the true power of the Celtic support. We’ve seen in the past just how incredibly effective our fans can be such as all those famous Champions League nights. What we saw yesterday was right up there.
Rangers were beaten as soon as they walked out onto that Parkhead turf and heard the noise emanating from the stands. They crumbled and looked as though they didn’t want the ball anywhere near them.
So it’s hardly difficult to see why O’Riley has been left blown away after last night. Who wasn’t?
In other news, Instant verdict on Reo Hatate after he destroys Celtic rivals in memorable Glasgow derby
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