Ross County’s manager Stuart Kettlewell has spoken about the scenes he witnessed late on Sunday afternoon as his team sat on their bus ready to leave Celtic Park amid the fans protest against Neil Lennon as Celtic manager.
Celtic had lost the Betfred Cup tie by 2-0, conceding in the usual manner, via the penalty spot and a corner kick, and several hundred supporters gathered outside the ground to protest after the worst run of home form since 1958. We’ll need to go back and have a look at what was happening at Celtic 62 years ago, might drop David Potter a note to see if he can shed any light on that one for us.
Listen, we get it that other supporters across the country and indeed in the wider footballing world will have little sympathy for the Celtic support who to them protested after some poor results and losing a cup game – after will the last eleven trophies in a row and being in the Scottish Cup final later this month.
It is not a good look for the club and the words of Dave King, about them only needing to win one title and Celtic will fold like a pack of cards, look increasingly like he might have been right.
“We did have to get a police escort out of Parkhead and on to the motorway,” Kettlewell told the media as reported by Glasgow Live. “”The police to my mind dealt with the situation very well, they were excellent.
“It is was absolutely despicable. The whole situation for me soured a brilliant day for our club. It was a great day for our club. We understand what it means to Celtic and how despondent their fans would be and their players and officials would be.
“It is football, we all know that that happens but you have to realise we are in the middle of a global pandemic here and some of the scenes I see sitting on the bus, watching police fighting and trying their damndest to stop guys breaking the perimeter barriers they set out was just despicable.
“If we look at the bigger picture outside football, we have police wrestling with people who potentially could have the virus and they are putting themselves in the front line to try to contain a situation.
“What Neil Lennon has done for Celtic as a player, a captain and manager, I certainly think he deserves a helluva more respect than what he and his players got on Sunday.
“I am not a Celtic official, I am not a Celtic supporter, Ross County is obviously my concern but I can only speak through sitting in that car park waiting to get away from Parkhead and it’s not scenes any of us want to see in Scottish football.
“Hopefully it is an isolated situation we don’t see again and people take heed that it is totally unacceptable.”
