Scott Bain could take the title for the most laidback character in the Celtic dressing room but the affable goalkeeper was still incensed 24 hours after Motherwell’s controversial goal on Sunday afternoon.
Ultimately it counted for little more than a statistical note but for the current incumbent of the number one shirt, it unravelled 9 domestic clean sheets and undone what he described as a considerable body of work in the process.
Gboly Ariyibi’s goal after Celtic had put the ball out for Ryan Christie to be treated for what looked like a hamstring pull was the first the Parkhead side had conceded domestically on their own turf since October.
And Bain did not take the slight lightly.
“I think it’s pretty embarrassing, pretty pathetic that they felt they had to try that to score a goal,” he said. “It was disappointing to lose the record like that. Not that we really thought or spoke about it but I don’t think we were too far away from getting to the record of clean sheets and we’d got there by playing some very good football.
“It’s disappointing. Something I’ve never seen before. It’s a bit embarrassing to be honest. I’m sure they woke up on Monday morning and were a bit embarrassed of how they’ve handled it. They had the chance to rectify the situation after and did nothing about it.
“The amount of work that we put in to those games before with the clean sheets, the way we defended… and it’s gone out of the window for something that shouldn’t really happen in football.
“For us to come in and them to say ‘you won the game anyway’ … that’s just absolutely pathetic.”
James Scott set the goal up when he latched onto a throw-in that Liam Grimshaw had put into the left channel. As play slowed anticipating a casual passing of the ball back, it quickly became apparent that the teenager was going for goal.
Scott looked sheepish as he left the pitch later in the game, almost apologising to his bench, and Motherwell manager Stephen Robinson cited the inexperience of the player as the reason for the goal that flouted convention.
Bain, though, was scornful of the reasons offer
ed as he insisted that the responsibility for it ought to have been taken by the Motherwell management.
“Their manager tried to blame it on a young lads but you’d got the chance to rectify the situation after and they don’t do it,” said Bain.
“I dunno. So, what has [Scott] not watched football before? He’s not played a game before? Youth team levels all the way up, it happens at every level. I think if you are the manager you have to rectify the situation.
“I don’t understand what he was thinking. He’s tried to blame it on a young lad but he’s in charge. So between him and the rest of the players they can sort it out. But obviously they didn’t want to. They wanted to try and get a second goal and get a point or go on to win the game.”
It will be interesting to note just what happens in the next fixtures between the sides if there is a similar scenario of a player on either side requiring treatment. Bain’s fury was still simmering as he suggested that he would be playing tit-for-tat in any future matches, but that would seem unlikely given Brendan Rodgers’ is always at pains to stress a respect for opponents.
Still, though, if it was up to Bain there would be no such understanding.
“If it was up to me? No. Not a chance,” he said. “In future we’ll probably just play with 10 men and not put the ball out of play. So our players could be lying down seriously injured. But it happened and we go from there.
“Most of the boys were angry and they have the right to be. It is not something we would do and it is not something I have seen anyone do, really.
"They have the right to be angry and for five or ten minutes it disjointed us a little bit and they came into the game but after the game against Valencia and how much all the boys put into that game and to power through again and get another two goals and win comfortably says a lot about the character in the team."
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