‘BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD,’ GRIFF TELLS RIVALS
LEIGH GRIFFITHS reckons Sevco Rangers are back to square one after being blown away in the Scottish Cup semi-final at the weekend.
The striker, who came on as a late sub for Man of the Match Moussa Dembele, thinks the Ibrox side will have to have a massive rethink following the four-goal walloping.
Celtic are now unbeaten in 10 meetings in this fixture under Brendan Rodgers and Griffiths said: “I don’t see how they can be happy after that.
“They’ll need to go back to the drawing board and figure out where they’ve gone wrong.
“When we bring our A game, nobody in Scotland can touch us. You saw that on Sunday. That was a game that they cheered for.
“Their manager said that, but you should be careful what you wish for in case it comes back to bite you on the arse.
“You always want to beat your rivals and, from start to finish, we dominated the game in every aspect.
“I could have had a goal myself near the end if Kieran Tierney had spotted me, but he was trying to pick out Scott Sinclair instead. It was 4-0 going on five or six.”
Last week, Graeme Murty suggested there had been evidence in previous Glasgow derbies of his side narrowing the gap on Brendan Rodgers’ champions.
But Griffiths said: “Their manager’s choice of words are his own. In our changing room, we just focus on the job in hand. At the end of the day, all that matters is that we get the job done.”
The 27-year-old hitman, just two goals short of the magical ton for the Hoops, also emphasised there will be no complacency in the next encounter against the Ibrox side a week on Sunday.
He added: “You have to approach the game in the right manner and respect your opponents.
“But as soon as the whistle goes, we need to be focused on the job in hand. It was a great performance against Rangers, but we need to take that into next week’s game against Hibs now.
“It will be weird going there to try and secure the title at Easter Road against my boyhood heroes, but that’s how it’s turned out and I just need to concentrate on that.
“My job is to go out there and get the victory for Celtic and wrap up the championship. Obviously, I grew up as a Hibs fan, but my job is playing for Celtic and I need to help us achieve the three points we need.
“The only way I can do that is by putting the ball in the back of the net. Hopefully, I can reach 100 goals for Celtic. I’m only two away so, assuming I get some more minutes on the pitch, I can achieve that.
“We’re only three points away from the title and, once we do that, we can concentrate on the Scottish Cup Final.
“Once it has been secured, I expect that the manager will give a run-out to the players who haven’t been featuring regularly and that means everyone will be in contention for a place in the Final against Motherwell.”
Read more from Celtic Quick News …
- ‘HE MUST HATE THE SIGHT OF ME,’ GORDON’S VIEW ON MORELOS
- ‘IBROX CHEERS ANNOYED US,’ CALMAC
- TURMOIL AT IBROX: ‘MILLER AXED, WALLACE SUSPENDED’
Catch up with Pau67’s Blog here …