Scott Brown has been speaking to the Daily Record this week about his time in Scottish football. The former Celtic skipper was a unique and special player for the club and won countless accolades during a glittering career in the Hoops. Throughout his tenure, he endured many highs and lows in Celtic shirt, but always managed to remain the same in the heat of battle.
Some of the ex-Hibs man’s wind-ups were legendary and on one occasion even created the circumstances surrounding his celebration – ‘The Broony’. More often than not, it was against our rivals across the way that these feisty encounters would occur and there were always candidates in blue that were ripe for the picking by our on-field leader.
Working now in his first foray into management with Fleetwood Town in Legaue One, the former Bhoys midfielder has been looking back over some of those epic battles and the strategies he would use to get the better of opponents. He said: “To be fair I won that one as well. No, I like to try to pick and choose my battles quite well.
“Morelos is a good player and was Diouf. But I would always try to get in their head and let them see that I’m a decent player. You flick a switch and either get them a red card or control the game. That was my mentality – to try to get in their head early doors. Did it work? Now and then, yeah. But to be fair they tried to give it back as well.”
The man who captained the club to nine consecutive League titles in a row, whilst winning a Quadruple Treble along the way, insisted that it’s part and parcel of what gives those derby matches their spice and edge, and they would never be the same without that. He added: “You don’t mind that. You want to see that kind of rivalry on the park and especially in a Rangers-Celtic game. You want to see somebody getting the better of others.
“I always wanted to get the better of him. I’d always try to wind him up, try to get on the ball and pull him in a little bit, pull him out of position. That’s what my game was. It was to try to slowly get into people but also at the same time it was to dictate play, to win the ball back and give it to the 10 other better players on the park!”
Paul Gillespie
