PANTOMIME villain Leigh Griffiths declared Celtic controlled the Old Firm match from start to finish on what was a hostile afternoon for the Parkhead forward.
After playing his part in the build up to the first goal and then irking the home support with a kick at Josh Windass, Griffiths popped up on 66 minutes to slam home the decisive second for the visitors at Ibrox to kill off Rangers.
Never a shrinking violet in these games, Griffiths celebrated his goal with gusto. Wheeling away towards the Sandy Jardine Stand waving a green-and-white scarf, he was soon joined by captain Scott Brown in front of an irate Rangers crowd, meeting their jeers with a grin on his face.
By the time he strolled into the Ibrox press room about 45 minutes later, it hadn’t moved.
“They like to pipe up a bit,” joked Griffiths. “Listen, I enjoyed my goal – you need to celebrate any goal you score. I was delighted with it. You need to enjoy those moments. It’s a derby at the end of the day and I’m sure if Rangers players had scored at Celtic Park they would do the exact same thing.
“I enjoyed my goal – 2-0, clean sheet, three points and we’ll go down the road and look forward to Wednesday [Champions League away game against Anderlecht] now.
“I think we controlled the game from start to finish. 0-0 was not a bad scoreline to go in with at half time and we knew going into the second half that our legs would be better than theirs.”
As much as the Rangers crowd didn’t approve of Griffiths’ swipe at Windass – it came as the two chased a dead ball out at the nearside touchline midway through the second half – he would also get it in the ear from his manager Brendan Rodgers watching on only a few yards away.
“The manager has been calm most of the time he’s been here – that’s one of the few times he’s lost it,” said Griffiths. “It wasn’t great to see, so hopefully I can stay on his good side now. The message was just to stay calm.
“At the start of the second half tempers were getting a little bit flared, so he just told me to keep the head and concentrate on my football.”
As Griffiths now looks forward to a trip to Belgium in the Champions League, Rangers will lick their wounds with a trip to New Douglas Park on Friday night next on the horizon. Not quite the same is it?
James Tavernier was one of Pedro Caixinha’s most influential players going forward and the right-back said he could take great encouragement from the performance yesterday, despite the end result.
And he also insisted that the gap between themselves and the side now eight points ahead of them is closing on the park.
“The first half showed it,” said Tavernier. “Both teams created good chances and I thought we defended really well. Second half it was two mistakes that really cost us the game. Once they had the goals, they could take their foot off the gas a bit.
“We tried to press them, and it's a hard game that really wears you down. We've got positives to take out of that game and we need to work on the negatives.”
When asked if he still thought Rangers could challenge for the title, the Englishman replied: “Definitely. We've got three more games against them and we have to make the big games count. It's still early in the season. We've got to work hard and address Hamilton now.
“I felt two mistakes cost us the game. It is difficult to swallow and we are all disappointed in that changing room.
“We were happy with the first half, we created some chances and came in pleased. The game was 0-0 so it was anyone’s game. It is the small details that can cost you the game.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel