KIERAN TIERNEY hit out at Aberdeen’s thug Sam Cosgrove for his outrageous assault on Scott Brown, stating that the Celtic captain could have been seriously injured. While KT was prepared to consider giving the red carded Dons substitute the benefit of the doubt afterwards regarding intent, at the time he was one angry Bhoy.
Cosgrove arrived in the North East from Carlisle in the transfer window having previously been at Wigan. It took him just 7 minutes to make a name for himself after coming on as a substitute as Aberdeen sought an equaliser and to capitalize on their one man advantage after Mikael’s Lustig’s poor control cost him a deserved second yellow.
But rather than trying to hit the net the big thug opted for a career threatening assault on the Celtic captain. Shay Logan followed this up by hammering the ball against Brown who responded magnificently, it has to be said, jumping straight to his feet and roaring towards the support.
Tierney, close by when the outrageous tackle went in, was first to confront the Dons thug, before Bobby Madden produced the second red card of the afternoon.
Afterwards the full-back, who went on to score a fabulous second goal to secure the points and end Aberdeen’s slender hopes of mounting a late title charge, said:
“Broony’s foot wasn’t planted, but if it was then you never know. It was in front of me and it was a high challenge.
“You would like to think that there wasn’t any malice. Broony got up and celebrated and that is just the sort of character he is.
“He is brilliant and a true, true leader for us to learn off and work under. It is a privilege and an honour for me to work with him.
“Maybe Aberdeen like to be aggressive and to get in our face. There is maybe the chance of bad tackles, but it is not just against a certain team.
“It could happen in any game, but you would like to think there was no intent to hurt anybody. Mikael’s was on the other side so I can’t comment on that,” KT said.
After the disappointment in St Petersburg, Tierney appecicated the significance of the three hard won points at Pittodrie.
“For us, it is all about concentrating on every game. If it sends out a message then it does, but we don’t concentrate on that,” he continued.
“We concentrate on ourselves. That was the result and performance we wanted. Aberdeen always make a good game of it, but to come up here and get a result on that pitch was brilliant.
“We were coming off a bad result and only had a couple of days to recover and it is a hard place to go, but we got the win and the clean sheet and we are all happy.
“For my goal, it was a great counter and Moussa was on the ball. He had an option to his right and I gave him one to the left.
“He played a great through ball to me and I have hit it that hard it has gone in. I managed to celebrate in front of the Celtic fans which meant a lot to me.”
Celtic move on towards the Treble with two home games, on Wednesday against Dundee at Parkhead where 3 more points are essential ahead of the next game – a visit to Ibrox where their dim hopes of winning all ten games and Celtic slipping up elsewhere too, can be extinguished. Then it’s Morton who are the visitors on Saturday in the Scottish Cup – a win there and it’s on to Hampden for the semi-final.
The prospect of back to back Trebles seems a little closer this morning.
NEW – David Low on The Celtic Star Podcast: A Celtic State Of Mind.
This week, Paul John Dykes and Kevin Graham are joined by one of the main players in the 1994 takeover of the club by Fergus McCann.
David Low – a Celtic-supporting financial analyst – realised that his club were in deep trouble in the late 1980s, around about the same time that Fergus McCann did. Eventually in the early 1990s, David and Fergus became part of a rebel group who would eventually topple the ‘biscuit tin’ regime.
David explains this incredible journey indepth, and casts doubt on some of the theories that have arisen over the last 25 years reagrding Celtic’s near death experience.
