CRAIG Beattie was single-handedly responsible for one of the most extravagant celebrations in the long history of the William Hill Scottish Cup. But the former Celtic, Hearts and Scotland striker said yesterday that it will be the directors of Rangers who would be turning cartwheels at the Parkhead side’s expense if his former gaffer Brendan Rodgers ever leaves the club.
Beattie stripped to the waist, jumped the hoardings and jogged around the perimeter of the track swirling his jersey around his head after he stuck in the disputed last-minute penalty against Celtic at Hampden in April 2012 which booked the Tynecastle side’s place in an all-Edinburgh final which they duly won 5-1. Those were the days when Neil Lennon’s Celtic were susceptible to a shock cup result or two, particularly at Hampden, but it is changed days now - seven competitions and counting since Beattie’s old Swansea City head coach Rodgers took charge. While St Johnstone wait in the fifth round this Sunday, this dominance is something Beattie can’t see changing too much all the while the Northern Irishman is in charge.
Asked if he felt boardrooms around the country would celebrate if Rodgers decides to leave, Beattie said: “Well, they will be celebrating in one - the Rangers boardroom - when Brendan is no longer there. The rest of them, I don’t think they will be overly fussed. I don’t think he has any real bearing on any other team, they are getting their money just the same, because Celtic will always bring huge gates. But over in Govan they will be celebrating. Because as long as Brendan Rodgers is there I think it [Celtic] is a winning machine.”
Whether relations are as cordial as they once were between the Northern Irishman and his Parkhead paymasters, the striker - whose last club was Elgin - knows it would take a big club to prise him away and feels the prospect of staying around in a bid to complete ten league titles in a row could entice him to stay.
“There has got to be a healthy relationship, and I am not privy to how that is at the minute,” he said. “But if you win the league this season it is eight in a row, then assuming you start the season well, you could do nine then you are so close to ten - it would be talked about forever,” he added. “If someone was to go on to do that ten in a row, which will never ever be done again in my opinion, he might just decide that ‘I want my family name down in the history of Celtic forever’.”
Asked recently if he has any regrets about that infamous ‘Taps’ aff’ celebration against his former side, Beattie could think of only one; that he left it there. If it was worthy of a yellow card, who knows what the punishment would have been if he had dropped the bottoms too. “I got four winners medals, three with Celtic and one with Hearts,” said Beattie. “The first two you are getting carried by the likes of Henrik Larsson and Chris Sutton. The one under Gordon Strachan against Dunfermline I managed to set up the winner for Jean-Joel Perrier Doumbe late in the game so I managed to have an impact. But with Hearts I managed to score in the quarter-final, then score a penalty against Celtic in the semi-final as well as an assist to set up an Edinburgh derby final so that one is probably the most special.
“I got yellow carded for taking my top off but it was the favourite yellow card of my career,” Beattie said. “I don’t buy into all this ‘you don’t celebrate against your former side’ stuff. I get that you are being respectful but I think you are then being disrespectful to your new club who pay your wages and their fans. It was just spontaneous. I would do the same again - only I would probably take my shorts off this time! It was a memorable goal because there was so much pressure on us. We were in the middle of the financial crisis and the boys weren’t getting paid.”
As it happens, Hearts squeaked past junior grandees Auchinleck Talbot that season, shortly before Beattie joined them. The same two sides meet at Tynecastle again this Sunday and for all Celtic’s domestic dominance the former Scotland striker knows that victorious teams this weekend will start sniffing glory. “Hearts beat them earlier in the competition in 2012 but that was prior to me joining, “ he recalled. “The first I knew about it was when I was asked about it on a Radio Clyde Beat The Pundit quiz recently!!
“But if you look at the draw then there a couple of the bigger teams been drawn together and I think Queen of the South are capable of causing an upset against Aberdeen.”
**Craig Beattie was speaking at a William Hill event. William Hill are proud sponsors of the Scottish Cup
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