News

Sam Cosgrove wrong to compare Rangers result to Celtic game

Add as preferred source on Google

Sam Cosgrove’s comparison between Celtic and Rangers today is as wrong as it is tiresome.

The Dons striker will likely line-up for his team as a lone striker at Parkhead this Saturday. Yet, he’s taking belief from the fact that his side managed to claw back a 2-2 draw at home to Rangers a couple of weeks ago.

Meanwhile, Celtic went to Pittodrie and dismantled the Dons 4-0 by half-time only two months ago. In addition to that, we haven’t lost a truly meaningful game to Derek McInnes’ side since February 2016. That means that Cosgrove won’t even have been at the club at the time.

Neil Lennon will fancy yet another win over Aberdeen this weekend (Michael Steele/Getty Images)

Yet Cosgrove told the Aberdeen website that the Rangers result apparently shows they can get another positive outcome at Parkhead.

“It is a good arena. It is a good place to go and play football. We have a point to prove. The last game against Rangers showed that we can do it against the Old Firm, we can compete on our day.

“It showed we can do it. So, we will be going down there looking to put in a repeat performance of the last 50 minutes or so against Rangers.

“We went into the Rangers game on the back of some decent form. We had a good unbeaten run and had put some good performances together – We went into that game full of confidence. And the confidence is still there.”

A similar performance won’t get you anything Sam

That 2-2 draw with Rangers two weeks ago did see Aberdeen show some fight. That’s undeniable. But it’s also chalk and cheese to compare us to our rivals. After all, we’re ahead of Rangers on everything – points, goals scored, head-to-head.

Aberdeen managed to get a draw against Rangers at Pittodrie two weeks ago (Scott Baxter/Getty Images)

A similar performance to what they produced at Pittodrie against Steven Gerrard’s men won’t be enough at Parkhead. Someone should maybe remind Cosgrove that they were hardly impressive against Rangers at all, despite the draw. Consistently giving the ball away and not being punished for it isn’t a luxury they’ll have on Saturday.

It’s difficult to know where Cosgrove’s belief really does stem from. After all, he’s only managed to beat us once since arriving, and that was a meaningless game at Parkhead back on trophy day in 2018. In addition to that, Aberdeen haven’t even scored against us in any of our last four meetings.

Are we to truly believe that an Aberdeen team who have lost 16 of their last 18 against Celtic are capable of beating us with a little bit of belief? (Fussball Datenbank) They need to hope that this juggernaut of a Celtic side has their biggest of-day of the season.

Lennon’s Celtic haven’t conceded a goal against Aberdeen (Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

Yes, Aberdeen did manage a 0-0 draw at Parkhead back in March. We haven’t conveniently forgotten that one. But we had Oliver Burke playing up top and our manager had just left us. The likes of Christopher Jullien, Jeremie Frimpong, and Odsonne Edouard all weren’t on the pitch.

Good luck to Cosgrove if he honestly believes there’s a comparison to be made between us and Rangers. However, if he thinks that their performance at Pittodrie against Rangers will be enough to get them something at Parkhead? He’s living in cloud cuckoo land.