Celtic were beaten by Aberdeen on penalties in the Scottish Cup final as the dream of winning a Treble became nothing more than a distant memory.
A number of Celtic stars were way below par as the Hoops were defeated by the Dons – a side Celtic had hammered just a few weeks earlier.
Callum McGregor and Alistair Johnston missed from 12 yards to hand Aberdeen their first Scottish Cup title in 35 years and in turn, inflict a cup final defeat on Brendan Rodgers across his two spells as Celtic manager.
All of Celtic’s squad will be the first to admit that they weren’t at the races and Pat Bonner’s warning to the side fell on death ears.
Pat Bonner told Celtic to ‘step up’ after lacklustre first half
Even though Celtic went into the break with a one-goal lead, it was hardly convincing.
As the players headed down the tunnel, Bonner told BBC Sportsound that the Hoops and Rodgers would need to improve if they were to go all the way.
He said: “It was all very safe in the first half. Brendan Rodgers will probably want Celtic to up the intensity by five or 10 per cent.”
That evidently didn’t come to fruition as the Hoops regressed if anything and eventually went on to lose in the Hampden Park rain.
Brendan Rodgers defends ‘complacency’ claims
You could be forgiven for thinking that Celtic thought a win would be a foregone conclusion.
Celtic thrashed Aberdeen with their reserve side and given that the Dons had been poor in the final weeks of the season.
When asked if Rodgers felt his side had taken their eye off the ball, the Irishman refuted those claims.
He told BBC Sport Scotland: “It wasn’t complacency, no. We had a real desire and hunger to win the game. It just happens, we were very safe in our midfield. Not penetrating enough with and without the ball in those areas.
“That is football, that’s sport. We’re not robots. It shows you how incredible this club, and group of players, have been – to be so consistently good.”
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