Raith Rovers manager John McGlynn wasn’t interested in feeding the media’s penalty agenda after being battered 4-0 at Celtic Park.
The Hoops managed to run out convincing winners despite many of the fringe players failing to impress. Even so, despite the comfortable nature of the win, there has been a massive over-the-top reaction to the penalty Raith didn’t get in the first-half.
The Daily Record and Scottish Sun both ran pieces on Chris Sutton and Paul Hartley’s verdict. Sportscene, meanwhile, made it the first thing they highlighted in their post-match analysis too. All the while the same outlets haven’t put any spotlight on the ridiculous offside decision that halted Celtic from making it 2-0 in the first half through Giorgos Giakoumakis.
However, McGlynn has shown a bit of class post-match has he provided some much needed reality. As he outlined his pride in his players, he also admitted Celtic were never in danger in the game as he refused to add to the penalty hype despite the BBC giving it a go in asking him about it.
Speaking to Sportsound yesterday, McGlynn said: “thought we were very well organised and very well disciplined in our play. We always felt Celtic were going to come out the traps early on so we wanted to get over that period which I thought we did. I thought we did very well. Celtic didn’t create too much and we got over that 20-minute period, but unfortunately, we lose the goal after 22 minutes – a really good strike from the edge of the box.
“We never got to the point where we could actually make them nervous. Unfortunately we could’ve done with just getting 1 or 2 more chances at 1-0 that maybe would’ve made them a little bit more nervous. I thought they were comfortable. Celtic were always going to have all of the ball but we had to pick our moments. And I think on the day we proably could’ve used the ball better, we gave it away too cheaply at times and we could’ve used it a bit better.
“The penalty? I haven’t seen it. I know there was a claim for a penalty, but I haven’t seen it.”
Raith Rovers boss more interested in his side’s deficiencies than Celtic controversy
In terms of his post-match comments here, fair play to McGlynn. It would’ve been so easy for him to feed this idea that his side were hard done by. That the penalty decision somehow changed the game and that on another day Raith would’ve been leaving with a historic cup shock to their name but for the referee.
Instead, he’s come out and openly discussed his own team’s deficiencies on the day. He’s pinning the blame largely on some of his Raith players’ slack play for the goals and how they treated the ball when in possession. Credit to him for that.
Raith certainly did themselves proud on the day. They forced Ange Postecoglou into bringing on the big guns, something the Hoops boss clearly didn’t want to go. In fact, Ange himself seemed raging post-match as he uncharacteristically called out his fringe players [Daily Record].
It’ll be interesting to see how the Celtic players react to that on Thursday night. However, with regards to the game against Raith in isolation, we were never truly in any danger – highlighted by the mass improvement after the first-choice attacking threats came on.
Had Raith, for example, scored their penalty, let’s not kid ourselves, Celtic were still highly-likely to go through. Let’s not pretend it was some kind of game-changer. You could easily say that the ridiculous Giakoumakis offside call had more of an effect on proceedings given it would’ve killed the match as a contest earlier.
But then again, that wouldn’t make for a better narrative would it? Fair play to McGlynn for not making a bigger deal out of it than is necessary.
In other news, “We’ve installed a culture”; Bodo/Glimt sporting director gets boastful before Celtic clash
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