AUSTON TRUSTY revealed the Celtic players were in a rage after the 1-1 Champions League stalemate with Club Brugge at Parkhead last night.
The deadlock against the Belgians gave the Hoops their eighth point from five encounters in Europe’s premier competition that has seen them win two, draw two and lose one.
They are still well on course for the next stage of the money-spinning tournament and Dinamo Zagreb are next up in Croatia a week on Tuesday.
Brendan Rodgers’ side then have back-to-back games against Switzerland’s Young Boys in Glasgow on January 22 and Aston Villa in the Midlands a week later.
The team are in a reasonably satisfactory position, but that did not count for much in the dressing room on this occasion – as Trusty pointed out.
OOPS…Cameron Carter-Vickers can’t disguise his horror after his own-goal shocker.
However, own-goal culprit Cameron Carter-Vickers, who gifted the visitors the first-half lead with a defensive howler, was NOT the target of his team-mates’ ire.
Trusty defended his USA international colleague and said: “We have his back. I don’t think any defender, any player, wants that to happen to him. But, you know, sometimes it’s part of football.
“I’ve had own goals, as well, so it’s one where you need a team-mate. So, I went over to him, made sure his head was up.
“With all of us, he knows that we have his back.
“He showed his character and also the team showed its character. We bounced back and the game went on and we had plenty of life left in it.”
Trusty, speaking to the Daily Record, continued: “I’ve been in locker rooms when you get away from this kind of game and guys are excited, but you go back in the locker room on this occasion and see guys really, really upset.
“That shows a lot of the character that’s in the team.
“We weren’t happy with how we played in the first-half, but we thought that we should have won this game and it was a real opportunity for us, not just to get one point, but to get three.
“Obviously, you take the point, but it’s good to see that guys are angry going into the locker room and sitting there just quiet.”
LET’S TALK…Kasper Schmeichel calls an emergency meeting among the Celtic players after Cameron Carter-Vickers’ shocking own goal.
Continuing to reflect on the draw that ended the hopes of four home successive wins in Europe’s elite competition, the centre-back looked at the emergency onfield meeting called by Kasper Schmeichel after the loss of the goal.
The £6million recruit from Sheffield United on deadline day added: “We just weren’t playing in our character in the first-half, so I think we all felt it.
“Sometimes you need that little huddle to wake everybody up and say: ‘Okay, what’s happened has happened, now we can move on from it’.
“So, that was a moment for us to make some changes and get some momentum back in the game.
“I think we’ve shown that we have the quality and we can play with any team and we back ourselves.
“The team is confident and we’re in good shape.”
