Let’s be honest. On Sunday morning you were expecting new Celtic arrival Nat Phillips to be named on the Celtic teamsheet for the Glasgow Derby at Ibrox and when instead you saw that it would be Liam Scales and not the Liverpool loanee who would be partnering Gustaf Lagerbielke in the centre of the Celtic defence, any pre-match confidence you had was weakened.
And on the other side of the divide theRangers supporters making their way into Ibrox must have received a boost and their already sky-high confidence about getting the three points must have gone through the roof.
Mick Beale thought so too as he clearly targeted the Irishman in the opening stages and thought he’d got an immediate result with the opening minute goal that was correctly ruled out for offside.
All that was understandable. Scales looked nervous the previous week against St Johnstone but actually playing against theRangers at Ibrox suited him better as he got to defend more and had less to worry about in terms of building the play from the back against a team like St Johnstone who were content to sit in and defend their penalty area.
Had it not been for the horrendous injury problems with his central defenders – losing Cameron Carter-Vickers, Maik Nawrocki and Stephen Welsh in quick succession – Scales could have been playing for Aberdeen at the weekend. When Welsh was given his contract extension and with new signings in Nawrocki and Lagerbielke coming in the door – CCV is a given – then there looked to be no place for Scales in the Celtic squad.
And Brendan Rodgers kept saying that the Irish defender is at an age where he wants to be playing regularly, so it certainly didn’t look like that was going to happen at Celtic. So when the Phillips deal was announced we all thought that he’d go straight in to make his Celtic Derby in the Glasgow Derby at Ibrox.
Ange Postecoglou used to say that everyone else commenting about his team selections at Celtic were working on around 10% of the knowledge that he had in deciding who played and who who didn’t. And of course Brendan Rodgers knew from speaking to the medical team at Liverpool that Nat Phillips was going to be unavailable for the game at Ibrox but would be fine when play resumes after the international break.
So it was always going to be Scales partnering Lagerbielke at the back and there is no doubt that the Celtic manager had every confidence in the pairing and as it turned out that confidence was justified with Scales, who he described as a ‘warrior’ walking away with his head held high and the Man of the Match award to prove his worth to this Celtic squad.
And with Greg Taylor looking to have picked up a knock, it might be an option to look at Scales as left-back cover as well as being a very useful central defender to have around the squad.
Scales though has ambitions to earn a regular starting stop at Celtic and on Sunday he went about achieving that in the right manner. And he wants to continue to impress and to give Brendan Rodgers plenty to think about when it comes to naming his back four.
“Look, all I can do is do my best. I need to make it difficult for the manager and just put in good performances,” Scales said to the mainstream media after the match at Ibrox, as reported by Daily Record. “And if I can keep clean sheets in every game I play, put in good performances, defend well and be good on the ball, then I will give him a headache at least. That’s all I am looking at now. It’s just taking it game by game, doing as well as I can just to make him have a decision to make.
“I’ve only played a handful of games for Celtic and I had to go out on loan to gain experience last season. To be back here now and get into the team, there have been a couple of injuries that have helped that… it’s a chance I have to take.
“Maybe if there weren’t a couple of injuries I wouldn’t have got this chance. But it’s great to be in this position and I have to make the most of it.”
And it’s worth noting that it was the man-management skills of the Celtic manager that coaxed that superb performance out of his fellow Irishman, instilling an ample supply of much needed confidence in Scales to complement is natural ability as a defender.
“He trusts me and how I can play. I have had a full pre-season to get used to the style of play, so that was it – just go in and play my game. We treated it like every game. It is a massive fixture and there is that little extra bit of volume. But it was the same as every time – just do your thing.”
Scales also has eyes for full international honours with Stephen Kenny’s Republic of Ireland squad. He has six Under-21 caps to his name but has so far failed to win a cap for the senior squad. But playing for Celtic he hopes could see him make that breakthrough too, but he understands that there is strong competition there too.
“There is tough competition because there are four centre-halves now playing in the Premier League for the Republic of Ireland,” Scales noted. “It’s probably the strongest position we have, so it is tough. I still haven’t been capped, although I have been in squads and on the bench. I’m chasing that first cap, that’s a massive goal. It’s probably the one thing I always wanted as a kid. This will help, 100 per cent.”
And that ability to play central of in the left back position could influence both Rodgers and Kenny when they are considering their own respective options at Celtic and Ireland. “It helps managers having a couple of strings to your bow. You can do jobs for different managers in certain areas,” Scales noted.
Morning Gossip: Well done Liam Scales who proved many of us wrong "I need to make it difficult for the manager by putting in good performances & if I can keep clean sheets with every performance & be good on the ball and defend well, then I will give him a headache at least." HH pic.twitter.com/StBiDetxhg
— Celtic Gossip (@CelticGossip) September 5, 2023
Liam Scales 🆚 Rangers:
🦶 58 passes completed (🥈in team)
💥 10 clearances (game high)
✈️ 4/8 aerial duels won (🥇 in team for total won)
🔐 3 interceptions (game high)
🤷♂️ 3/5 tackles won (🥉in team)
👋 Dribbled past twice
🥋 3/8 ground duels wonGave it everything he had 💪🏼 pic.twitter.com/DwvqVEIrr8
— Hamill (@CPHamill) September 3, 2023
Liam Scales | Wicklow Bhoy | Celtic | Ireland | 🍀 | 🇮🇪 | pic.twitter.com/uYt2cXfDJF
— Celtic Curio (@Celticcurio) September 4, 2023
A heroic win for Celtic – a physically gruelling slog – at Ibrox.
Liam Scales magnificent.
Some severe heat now on Michael Beale. Pre-match he couldn’t have been clearer – these 90 minutes, he said, would speak about his new team and his recruitment.
The match spoke volumes.— Graham Spiers (@GrahamSpiers) September 3, 2023
Well played Liam Scales. A lot of focus on the Celtic back line with key players out but so much to be admired about his performance. Barely put a foot wrong 👏👏🍀
— Chris Sutton (@chris_sutton73) September 3, 2023
MOTM and I won't hear any differently, tremendous performance by Liam Scales 👏 pic.twitter.com/Mm8ac7nbcc
— Highland__Paddy (@Highland__paddy) September 3, 2023
So pleased for Liam Scales that he's getting the recognition for his value to Celtic just now. A lot of harsh criticism before. Ibrox display has to make people think differently. Good left foot more important than height, as Kieran Tierney proves for Scotland. #CelticFC
— Phil Gordon (@PJG_Sport) September 4, 2023
"It was good. I enjoyed it."
Liam Scales pic.twitter.com/oqhavACb3F— CelticQuote (@CelticQuote) September 3, 2023
