Celtic captain Scott Brown has provided a humble response to yesterday’s derby defeat at home to Steven Gerrard’s Rangers, admitting the Ibrox side were the better team, The Scottish Sun report.
Neil Lennon’s Bhoys fell to a 2-1 defeat in the Scottish Premiership, just the second league defeat of the entire season so far.
The performance was far from good enough and coming so soon after being similarly outplayed in our recent cup final triumph, has provoked a bit of worry amongst Celtic supporters.
Brown got to the heart of the matter with his post-match thoughts, calling on the club to learn from the last two derby matches and come back stronger in 2020.
As quoted by The Scottish Sun, the captain said: “Rangers played quite well. They closed us down and we didn’t play as well as we could have. We need to learn now, because that’s two games in a row now where they have probably outplayed us.
“The main thing was that we won the cup final and we’re still top of the league. They’ve got a game in hand but we’re certainly not in too bad a place.
“But it’s the performances against Rangers that we need to make sure we improve on. We don’t like losing, but we have to make sure we start 2020 with a bang. They closed the middle of the park, as they always do when they play against us, and we couldn’t get our wingers into the game quickly enough.”
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A needed reality check
The comments contradict some of the other public statements coming out of the club, such as Lennon’s suggestion that Celtic didn’t deserve to lose the game.
It’s not nice to hear our captain make the concession that we’ve been outplayed in two massive derbies, but it is at least pleasing that the result has sunk into one of the big leaders in the dressing room.
It’s only with a brutally honest assessment of our shortcomings that we’re going to improve. Despite Lennon’s interview, I’m sure that’s something he’s imparting onto his squad behind the scenes too.
We’re in for a massive fight in the second half of the season and there can be absolutely no complacency, especially in the two remaining derby matches.
Hopefully, Brown’s teammates answer his please to learn from these poor performances, or nine-in-a-row glory is at risk.