BRENDAN ON BARRY AND BEAUTIFUL SUNDAY
“Listen, Barry Ferguson is someone I don’t know. I’ve never met him so I can’t comment on him. I only know him as a player and I had great respect for him as a player. He clearly is very much Rangers, which I respect, and a Celtic win can hurt very much.
“But I think most supporters would admire our team and how we won, and I mean both sides, would not say we were lucky. In any game of football there is always an element of luck. But I would think even Rangers supporters wouldn’t say that, if you look at how we played and what we had to go through in the game.
“That’s the third time in the 20 months I have been up here when we’ve gone down to 10 men. They were all away, at Pittodrie, Hamilton and Ibrox.
“In those matches, over the course of the time we were down to 10 men, it has been 94 minutes, so virtually a game and extra-time we’ve played with 10 men. And in those games, when we were down a man, we scored four goals and conceded none. I don’t think that’s luck.
“It was a great game, we had to show fighting qualities, we were up against it through our own mistakes. If you look at their two goals, the first one was a mistake from us, and the second wasn’t the best defending when a cross comes in but then, really, there was nothing on.
“All they had was the Alfredo Morelos opportunity which he should score.
“The victory was sweet because of many elements of the win. Our preparation and tactics for the game, the adversity the players went through makes these types of wins even better. It was a great atmosphere, real hostility, and so to come through that and show solidarity and quality to win the game was so satisfying.”
Blowing the whistle, former referee on Willie Collum’s Ibrox performance
