CALLUM McGregor reckons Celtic were fully entitled to celebrate their Old Firm victory the way they did on Sunday afternoon - because they took it on the chin when Rangers lorded it over them at Ibrox back in December.
The mild-mannered Scotland midfielder – who jokes that he was hiding alongside James Forrest when the melee began after the final whistle at Celtic Park on Sunday – insists that he and his team-mates always attempt to show ‘humility’ in victory and defeat. Whether or not everyone always lives up to that ideal, it is most certainly true that Brendan Rodgers’ side took their medicine in a far more productive manner after the 1-0 defeat in December than Rangers managed at the weekend.
“There’s been a lot said about it but as a football player, and especially playing in a Celtic v Rangers game, you are entitled to celebrate,” said McGregor, speaking as the club launched a new club festival at the SEC in Glasgow this July. “And I don’t think anything was over the top. John Kennedy mentioned the other day that the game finished over in that corner [where the away fans were situated]. Nobody ran to anywhere else in the stadium. They celebrated where they were on the pitch and in my eyes there was nothing wrong with anything that any of the Celtic players did.
“If you look back at the December game, Rangers deserved to win it and they celebrated on the pitch just as much as we did on Sunday,” he added. “The difference is we took it.
“We put our heads down, took our medicine and we got up the tunnel. So in terms of that, the conduct of the Rangers players maybe was not great. But you can’t tell players you can’t celebrate big victories. That’s part of football.
“Rangers deserved to win that day, they were the better team. We took it on the chin, we were not great on the day. We accepted that – we weren’t going to shout about it and make noise and try and deflect from the actual result.
“On the flip side we deserved to win the game on Sunday so we celebrated that. It’s up to Rangers the way they want to conduct themselves. We always try and do it with humility.”
Considering the depressingly predictable turn of events after the final whistle on Sunday, it was refreshing to hear McGregor talk ahead of tonight’s league match against St Mirren about his disdain for these pushing and shoving matches when the game is already done.
With a 13-point lead in the bag already, Celtic could even wrap up their eighth title in a row as early as this weekend in the event of a Rangers slip-up. No amount of wrestling with the opposition after the final whistle was ever likely to change that.
“Where was I?” said McGregor. “I was hiding. Me and Jamesie just laugh and take it all in – we are too wee to get involved in all that pushing and shoving!
“It’s just the way I am as a person,” he added. “When the game is going on you will do anything you can to win. But when it’s finished, if there’s been any flashpoints I don’t see any point in getting involved – there will probably be retrospective action for one or two so you run the risk of damaging your team if you get involved in these shoving and pushing matches.
“It doesn’t mean anything once the final whistle has gone. You have your chance in the 90 minutes to affect the game. If you want to shout about it afterwards, I don’t see the point.”
Much has crystallised around the gamesmanship of Scott Brown – but Rangers’ indiscipline on the day merely played into the hands. “I don’t think Broonie did anything wrong,” said McGregor. “The way he was treated on the pitch – he has basically been assaulted twice for a wee bit of mind games maybe. It happens in football, if you can’t deal with that, it’s a charged atmosphere and you have to expect it. Both sets of fans are going for it, so the players are going to try and get an edge whatever way they can.”
Closing in on his fifth Premier League title, there will be something particularly sweet about this one for McGregor – particularly considering the adversity overcome by a Celtic side who haven’t always been firing on all cylinders.
Sunday was their fourth crucial late goal in their last five matches and in retrospect – regardless of the departure of Rodgers – that 1-0 Old Firm defeat at Ibrox might just have been a blessing in disguise. For all the character shown by the ten men of Rangers, ultimately Celtic had ground out another big win.
“The game in December was actually very good for us,” he said. “Obviously going into that game we had the game in hand, so it was okay that way – we were never going to drop behind or whatever.
“But in defeat we learned a lot about ourselves that day about refocusing for the rest of the season. From December to now we have been near enough perfect, with results, performances and everything and we have had a change of manager in there as well. It shows how focused this group of players are to go and keep succeeding every season.”
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