On 8th December 2019 Neil Lennon’s injury hit Celtic side headed to Hampden Park to take on theRangers in the Scottish League Cup final…
It was a dreary rainy and windy day and the Celtic performance kind of matched those elements as we were to put it bluntly, truly awful.
I’ve no problem in saying that the Ibrox side were the better team on the day, and if it wasn’t for the incredible Fraser Forster we could have been on the end of a serious hiding.
However such is football if you don’t take your chances you don’t get anything, and so it proved as French defender Christopher Jullien took one of our few chances to score what proved to be the match winning goal and it was celebrated in the Celtic stands like a big win on poker sites not on GamStop.
Even after that goal we seemed determined to let the Ibrox side back in, and young Dutch right-back Jeremie Frimpong showed his inexperience by giving away a silly penalty that referee Willie Collum was only too keen to give, and for added measure sent off the youngster to make it look ominous for Celtic giving theRangers vast experience of scoring from the spot.
For some reason or another their spot kick expert James Tavernier passed over the duties to striker Alfredo Morelos who fluffed his lines in a derby game yet again by firing the ball straight at Fraser Forster.
Celtic dodged yet another bullet, and the remaining half an hour or so seemed like an age as the Hoops put in a backs to the wall performance with ten men.
Although it could have been so much comfortable had Mikey Johnston not passed up a golden one on one opportunity after having being put clean through by a brilliant Odsonne Edouard pass. I think we can all agree that if the roles had been reversed then the outcome would have been entirely different.
In the end Celtic prevailed, and as the final whistle sounded the players and supporters celebrated with a mixture of relief and joy in the Hampden rain. For theRangers, it was utter dejection for Steven Gerrard and his ever so disappointed captain James Tavernier. If only he had the bottle to take that penalty.
Yes it could be said that on the day Celtic didn’t deserve to win, but in the end the scoreline never lies. It wasn’t pretty but as the players celebrated with the trophy nobody still inside Hampden cared a jot.
Just an Ordinary Bhoy
