It seems as though there has been a slight overreaction to Celtic’s 3-0 defeat at Ibrox yesterday. Not by the Celtic manager or the fans. We all knew that the rewards of winning or losing this game was simple. Three points.
The result yesterday had no bearing on the destination of the league title and it certainly has no bearing on the upcoming Scottish Cup Final which is why I found the post-match line of questioning by the BBC a little bit strange.
Asking if Ange had learned anything from the results in terms of his preparations for next season, Ange said [BBC Sportsound], “You learn all the time.
“People think that there’s some sort of autopilot switch you go into. We learn every week we learn from everything. We learn from good games, bad games. Life.
“Everything teaches you something.”
The BBC reporter strangely then went on to ask if the manager was concerned that the defeat could cause his side to lose momentum at this stage of the season.
Ange took a second and then replied, “No, I mean, like I said, it’s a poor performance, but we’ve had one of those earlier this year as well and we bounced back okay.”
The reply from the Celtic manager left the pundits in the studio laughing as they seemed to recognise what Ange was alluding to.
The 2-0 loss to St Mirren was a springboard that launched Celtic onto a huge 27-game unbeaten run to pull away at the top of the league.
The only thing this defeat to Rangers does is allow them to make the gap at the top of the league look that little bit more respectable. That’s it.
I will not be as presumptuous or arrogant enough to claim that the defeat will not hurt. Of course, it will. But will it do anything to suggest that the team will lose their momentum because of it?
Recent history this season, and last season for that matter, suggests that it will galvanise this Celtic team, not hinder it.
Receive a digest of our best Celtic content each week direct to your mailbox
