Celtic captain Callum McGregor has explained why he handed his jersey in to the support after Thursday night’s loss to Bodo/Glimt.
The Hoops produced a meek display in Norway as our Europa Conference League hopes were finally killed off. The 2-0 defeat flattered Celtic with the XI sent out onto the pitch unable to lay a gove on our foes. McGregor was one of the players to come on in the second half as Ange Postecoglou tried to salvage some modicum of pride from the tie.
Meanwhile, the journey over for many supporters was a hectic one. Many were diverted to Trondheim after flight delays before finally arriving in Bodo. Then, what they were subjected to on the park was simply nowhere near good enough.
McGregor, therefore, believes it was simply a gesture worth performing to acknowledge the support Celtic were given in Norway. Speaking via the official Celtic website, Callum said: “The support travel far and wide. We obviously heard the story of how some of them got stuck in Trondheim earlier on, so what should have been a two-hour journey turned into eight or nine hours.
“We can completely appreciate the efforts that the fans go to, to come and support the lads, so that was just a small token (giving the jersey) but to win the game would have been a much better token of appreciation.
“But what I will say is that always thank them for their support and we want them to stick with us. It’s been a good season so far, so we just keep pushing together and we achieve what we want to achieve.”
The Celtic captain steps up again to lead from the front
It was hugely disappointing that McGregor didn’t start in Norway. As soon as you saw that was the case, you knew that the manager wasn’t prioritising the second leg. Instead, his eyes were clearly fixated on Easter Road today.
Ange probably didn’t even want to play McGregor at all. However, such was the nature of the poor performance we were putting in, he would’ve felt that he had to just to stop things from becoming a humiliation.
McGregor will know that handing a jersey into the crowd doesn’t make up for what we watched. But it’s great to see him showing his leadership skills once more. He was hardly even on the pitch in Norway, yet he’s taking responsibility for what was conjured up.
It’s clear that he’s embracing his new responsibility this season after the departure of Scott Brown in the summer. He’s evidently comfortable operating as our on and off-field leader in the dressing room. Gestures like this only bolster that relationship he already has with the supporters.
But there’s no room for on-field errors today when we arrive in Leith. Not when you take into account the fact that we’re in desperate need of 3 points to go 6 clear of Rangers and firmly put some pressure on.
McGregor will undoubtedly be back into the starting line-up this afternoon. And you already know what you’re going to get from him – a consistent level. A real captaincy trait.
In other news, A statement of title defiance has just come out of the Celtic dressing room
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