THE great and the even greater lined up last week to describe Celtic’s defeat in Gibraltar in less than complimentary terms.
Club legends from Lisbon Lions to those who starred during the Martin O’Neill era were not slow in coming forward to have a right go at Brendan Rodgers’s team. You could understand their anger.
After all, their team had just lost to the, erm, famous Lincoln Red Imps. Some of the loudest critics have European Cup winners medals somewhere in the house. Such nonsense never happened in their day.
Modern players can take the huff when one of the old guys has a go at them. Leigh Griffiths is not so precious. Indeed, he would never dream of pretending that losing in such a way was not deserving of a few negative comments.
“We never want to be on the end of any bad result,” said Griffiths. “But these guys (former players) have won the biggest thing that you can win in football and in their club career. It is hard to take but we are professionals and we need to take it on the chin.
"We have the chance to rectify the result and it is one of those ones where hopefully we get through to the next round and we can prepare again.
“Was it over the top? No. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. The players in the dressing room after the game were very disappointed with the performance and result.
"The manager came in and said it was only half-time in the tie but we felt that for us as players we should be going over to Gibraltar and putting in performance. We should be looking to keep the ball on Wednesday rather than go and chase the game.”
If anything the reaction from supporters was a lot worse. Again, Griffiths does not have a problem with this and accepted that he and his team-mates deserved being booed and, in colloquial terms, having their bravery questioned by those who travelled to Gibraltar a week ago.
“It was disappointing for everyone involved, especially us as players, and we can understand the frustration of the fans,” said Griffiths. “They paid money to come and watch us and it was ourselves who put in the poor performance and got the wrong result.
“But I can definitely say that it will be a totally different ball game on Wednesday. There will be a lot of people there supporting us and hopefully they cheer from the first to the 90th minute and we give them something to go home happy about.”
The Celtic supporters want to see goals. Lots of them Brendan Rodgers does as well but getting through this it and putting these Impish minnows behind him for the rest of his life is all the Celtic manager is really looking for.
His team should win at a canter. It would be surprising not to see them get four or five. But Rodgers was wary of predicting anything like a damn good thrashing.
“The games are always built up as walk-overs but there are not too many of them in modern football,” he said. “It doesn’t matter who the bodies are, if they work in a bank or not, if you have eleven people behind a ball and they are fit enough then they can make it very difficult for you.
“And I think that was proven last week. So, of course, we expect to do better and we are disappointed. For me the job was always going to be finished at home, and that’s what we aim to do.”
Asked if he was unrepentant about suggesting last week's defeat was not an embarrassment, a comment many supporters had difficulties with, Rodgers said: “Yeah, 150 per cent. I am working with a group of players who are so humble and have no ego. This is my first experience of up here in terms of coming in for pre-season and you have your most important games right at the front.
“I was disappointed with the result, of course. Everyone was. Results will always spark a reaction. For me, it has always been about getting the job done. The question is was I embarrassed by the players – and no I wasn’t.
“I have come into here and found they are a group of really good guys. They are doing their best, work hard, they do need help and support, and that’s what we are trying to give them. But it was a difficult game and in games such as that, when there are eleven men behind the ball, the thing that can break those lines is speed.
“And our problem was that the game was so slow because of the surface. The players were taking one touch and had to before they decided what they wanted to do. If you look at all the writing and study it you think it should be 10-0 – but the reality of football is that doesn’t happen.”
Rodgers has protected his charges over the last seven days. They owe their manager for that.
"At this period of the season when they are fighting for fitness, and the games are front-loaded, they are giving me everything," said the Celtic manager. "Apart from last week’s result, they could not have done any more since I walked through the door.”
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