It’s NOT over and you’d be silly to believe that it is. That is the defiant message from Celtic goalkeeper Scott Bain after yesterday’s frustrating dropped points encounter at Easter Road. In a match Celtic should have won comfortably they found themselves two goals down and heads dropped. Defensive errors, plus the laziness Neil Lennon referred to and also the manager’s inability to listen as shown on his team sheet.Tighten up your defence we told him, play Elhamed as your right back for his defensive instincts. Jeremie Frimpong is a forward minded player. Play him further up the park if he’s good enough to get in the side in those advanced positions but as a right back, no. And Lennon was told.
Here’s Bain speaking to Celtic TV after the match…
“It’s slightly frustrating. I think when we were 2-0 down we showed great character and belief that we could still go on and win the game,” Bain told the media, as reported by Scottish Sun.
“If the game was another three or four minutes, I think we would’ve come away with all three points. But it was obviously frustrating to find ourselves in that position having completely dominated the game.
“Every game you can say, ‘I wish we were 3-0 up at half-time’ but that’s not how football goes.
“Like I said, I think we were in total control and if we’d shown a little bit more quality in the final third before then, I think it would’ve been an easier game and we would’ve been up the road with the three points.
“It was frustrating after the penalty because we do all the work on penalties and what’s going to happen. We need to be better all over the pitch at helping your mate out a little bit more. That will see us in good stead.
“We defended well all day. Like I said, it’s just two split seconds where we’ve switched off and been punished for it.
“But the thing was we showed great belief and great character to fight back — and that’s what this team does.”
A reporter asked Bain if the title was now theRangers’ for the taking but he was having none of that. “You’re silly,” the Celtic goalkeeper said. “I’m sure there will be those who do it, but they will be silly to do it.
“I think we’ve always shown an ability to go on a run. If you look at the turn of the year in the last three or four seasons, we have really steam-rollered teams from then on.
“There’s a lot of games to be played. December is a really busy month, so we need the full squad to be together for that. When you go to December you know you want to be there or thereabouts.
“But in the coming months, when it really matters, this squad goes from strength to strength and really pushes on. We want to get that quicker — but there’s a lot of games to be played.
“It’s been difficult, we seem to be punished for every mistake we make at the moment. That’s just how it’s going right now. But it’s a case of digging ourselves out and pushing on. We just need to keep working hard, working away at it.
“I don’t think we’re too far off in terms of what today’s performance showed. We should have been way ahead before they scored.”
Asked about the position he finds himself in – back as the current first pick keeper after Fraser Forster decided against a return to Celtic in the summer and Greek international arrival came in on the back of a £5million transfer fee paid to AEK Athens but was unable to command the manager’s confidence to remain in the team, Bain simply stated that he’s only doing what is asked of him.
“I’m just doing what I’m asked to do. If they want me to play then I’ll play. And I’ll play to the best of my ability, it’s what I’ve always done here. Personally I think I’m playing well. I came back in the summer and worked my balls off.
“I feel I’ve got myself back in a place where I am ready, physically and mentally, to play for this club whenever I am asked to do so. I think that year out, not playing, has actually benefited me in the long-term in terms of my mental ability to come back in.
“I always expected the club to sign a goalkeeper in the summer with Fraser Forster departing. Whatever my role, I had made a decision to come back in the best shape I could be to fill that role.
“It spurs you on that there were games last year I was sitting in the stand watching. That gave me the kick up the arse to get myself together and make sure that didn’t happen again.”
