You can tell a lot about a football team and a sporting organisation by looking at two things: how they handle victory and how they handle defeat. At Celtic, there’s no strutting, no preening, no arrogance, and no overblown celebrations when we win.
The focus is always on the next game and the next success. And when we lose, there’s no scrambling for excuses or attempting to put a brave face on it. Instead, the focus sharpens, and the players and management collectively take stock.
Nobody panics when you’re this far ahead in the league—nobody has to. Nobody realistically thinks one defeat has reopened the title race or given our opponents more than a token chance of sparking a comeback, as long as we don’t let a single loss turn into a slide in standards. We’ll keep moving forward. That’s the most important thing, alongside learning lessons and remembering we’re the same team we were yesterday—and the day before that.
That’s why it’s gratifying to read Callum McGregor’s comments, which utterly reject the excuse narratives being peddled by a media desperate for us to hide behind one. Nobody at Celtic is blaming officials. Nobody is pointing the finger at a packed schedule. Nobody is suggesting the 14-point lead caused complacency. There’s a collective understanding that we simply weren’t good enough on the day.
All I ever ask from my team after a defeat is exactly what they’re doing now: talking about the lessons they can learn, about how they can improve, and about how they let themselves and the fans down. They’re taking it hard, and they should be.
They’re suffering, and they want to put it right—exactly as it should be.
I would have been mortified if, in the aftermath of this game, any of our players had resorted to the kind of nonsense theirs have after defeats. Nobody here is looking for positives or settling for the result simply because we’re still comfortably ahead in the league. Nobody is offering a disingenuous, “Ah well, but we played well,” line. Instead, our players sound angry, frustrated—and yes, some of them sound pissed off.
That’s exactly what we want to hear. They know they let themselves down, they know they let us down, and they know they let standards slip. Nobody is fooling themselves otherwise. Nobody is clinging to the idea that this result doesn’t matter because it doesn’t change the title race. The frustration and hurt in that dressing room are real—and that’s a great motivator, even if extra motivation isn’t needed.
“There’s a couple of wee warning signs there and a lot of the big moments in the game have come from that, the sort of transition moments where they’ve managed to block a pass and then play forward from there,” McGregor said, in a detailed and brilliant take on what went wrong.
“There are signs there that we have to fix it—and try and fix it as quickly as we can. There’s no point in having any excuses. We turned up, we wanted to win the game, but we were never really competitive in the game, so the only thing you can do is accept responsibility and find a way to change it. That’s why we’re here. We’re here to try and win as many football matches as we can. And then, when it goes wrong, you have to reflect and find out why.”
Everything you want to hear from a defeated team is in McGregor’s statement, just as it was in Rodgers’ comments after the game. This is a team that won’t spend too long feeling sorry for itself. When the captain and the boss are already discussing tactical tweaks to ensure improvement, you know the lessons are being learned—and you know they’re determined to act on them. That’s why I feel much better about what we just watched.
Now, just two days on, I feel perfectly happy putting that game in the rearview mirror.
And later today, I’ll explain why all of us should be doing the same—and why the opposition shouldn’t be getting overly excited about it.
Of course, they will anyway, because they always do.
And that’s one of the reasons we’re strong, and they’re weak, in spite of that single result.
Well for a start The Celtic players and Brendan will simply have to (c.Tony Mowbray) “Take it on the chin, and move on” – By That – I mean Take it on the chin from The Celtic Support – And to be honest – Take it on the chin from The Scummy’s of The Scummy Scottish Football Media as well who for once will have a valid point to spunk and finger themselves off the scale at our fear, cowardice and ineptitude on the day at Liebrox…
I won’t be listening to Clyde Superscoreboard for weeks now save for Sevco dropping further behind as I’ll be the first in the queue for ma schadenfreude should that be the case…
Obviously I won’t be buying the ‘saturate the vomit’ rags nor reading online, but I guess Cal-Mac, Brendan and Co. (namely Scales and Hatate according to The Celtic Support) will (correctly) be getting pelters – If mot missiles – then vehemently written abuse from the normal crayon scribblers…
For once it will be deserved vehemently written abuse – But only for ninety minutes of ‘football’
The League Cup is at Parkhead straddled by The Scottish Cup and The Scottish Premier League Trophy…
And Celtic are 11 points ahead at the halfway stage…
If anyone had offered me that as Sevco were bulldozing their way to The Close Season Treble I’d have ran a thousand miles for that scenario for sure !
Putting that game in the rearview mirror won’t be easy for many supporters. We lose to Rangers from time to time, that’s no problem, but it was the manner of this defeat. We all thought we had a really good side but a very average, verging on a poor side caused every one of our players to be totally ineffective, we couldn’t come close to matching them physically, we really got a pounding!! I could never have seen that team being that bad. It also highlighted that Brendan, described as an elite manager has no plan B, he was left totally clueless, unable to make any changes to counter their dominance. Thursday was a real wake up call and after all the criticism we have given Clement, we maybe need to give him some respect as he certainly found a way not only to defeat us but also to humiliate us and put us in our place. Yes we will win the league but a fair bit of gloss has been taken off it by the manner of that defeat.
Spot on Dan. This game showed what many of us (but not enough) Celtic fans already knew. That BR is NOT an elite manager – he’s a very good manager and by far the best in Scotland -elite managers are able to change the direction of games even if only to stem the tide. Clement is NOT a bad manager – he’s decent and has shown himself to be tactically astute in not only nullifying our play in 3 of the last 4 games but how to then actually tear us apart to devastating effect.
Same goes for the players – yes we have a better squad and our best players are better than their best players BUT our players are not as good as many of our fans think and their players are not as bad as our fans think. Phrases like not one of their players would get on our bench are simply ridiculous – does anyone really believe Scales is better than Souttar, that Yilmaz isnt a better defender than Taylor, that Hagi isnt a excellent attacking midfielder etc. Admitting those things is not weakness or somehow make one any less of a true Celtic supporter – its the very opposite it makes those of us who can see it be able to recognise where our improvements need to be made and where the danger lies.
Too many fans have only ever known the 21st century where generally we have been the dominant team but going to Ibrox has never been nor ever will be easy. Having said that what Thursday’s game does allow, is time for the manager and players to reconsider their approach to these games and practice that approach so we can hand them the pounding – ideally in the Scottish Cup Final 🙂
I think you’re not far off the mark there Dan as regards elite managers,BR doesn’t seem to have learned anything on how to cope with Clement and the way he sets up to play , surely after the last few close games and the near miss cup final, where sevco have been better than us ,that Brendan would have changed tactics or tweaked the side but he done neither for Wednesday’s humping we took from sevco,how can the team and the manager say they’re learning, when obviously they’re not or we would have been able to a least give the Huns a harder time,or was there complacency there because of the 14 point lead ,but either way I hope we have learned, another way to play because if young boys were watching that ,they may have just got instructions from Clement how to nullify our style of play and they might just get a point or 3 in their champions league game against us.
Spot on indeed Dan (apart from we don’t lose to ‘Rangers’ from time to time) as ‘Rangers’ are dead….
Spot on too Woodyiom and the others too…
If we don’t change it at Parkhead v Sevco on 15th March they will beat us there as well and bang will go our narrow lead in (their) (Sevco Hun Hoards) head to head results even though we know the chasm is Celtic in the lead by over 150 games won !!!
Sorry james but going back to the coin throwing incident AI should tell the yellow bellied bastards on OUR BOARD if they don’t do something serious about being hit ,he’ll take them to court when are these cowards going to take the sevco scum the whole road ,when a player or backroom member of staff is killed.MO MORE NICOLSON,LIEWELL AND THE REST OF USE COWARDS GET IT DONE NOW OR GET TAE FUCK.
It is always better to be honest and tell the truth. As in the end the truth ALWAYS comes to the fore
The captain is only telling the truth, as there is nowhere else to hide. The truth is they simply weren’t good enough, hungry enough or driven enough in all departments on the day which isn’t acceptable at all.
Another truth is, and I spoke about this point after the game with some friends is that game was proverbially a 6 pointer. And where the reasoning come from for this assertion is that in truth sevco were unlucky not win against hearts at the start of the season and should have recently beaten St Mirren and Motherwell with chances created. So our points cushion flaters us slightly.
I like many others didn’t see that result coming, but after seeing the starting lineup, which was the same essentially as the cup final one, I suspected it was going to be tight unless these guy’s stepped up from their cup final performances and learned and moved on as they and BR said they would. The truth is and as we saw they didn’t and hadn’t.
Another truth is, as one of your other articles highlighted is Rodgers needs to shoulder a huge amount of blame for this result. He put that team out telling them they owed him and us a performance but set them out with the same tactics and instruction which was nearly nullified in the final.
So, the truth for me is that, while as a business and logistically and squad size we may be miles ahead of them, any team with a decent level of ability showing more hunger and desire are well capable of beating us. New year hopefully brings us a new approach. One filled with more hunger and desire. After Thursday they owe us that much. Happy New year to you all and God bless you and yours this year.
I’m not 100% convinced that Brendan has learned from this defeat. He didn’t tweak the system after the last game, or at half-time on Thursday. His substitutions were like for like within the same system, which wasn’t working. He did mention that the 14 points difference may have been a factor, and that the big picture was what mattered. His comments and Callum’s also seemed to suggest they’ll continue with the same system but do it better – a better plan A with no plan B?
One good thing to come out of it is it may be easier to persuade the board to bring in January signings! A Happy and Healthy New Year to All! ??