Celtic’s nightmare season continued as they crashed out of the Scottish League Cup at home to Ross County on Sunday. The shock result came after back to back 4-1 defeats in the Europa League to Sparta Prague, and added more pressure on manager Niel Lennon who is facing calls to resign.
After the match a mob of hundreds of angry fans turned on the team outside Celtic Park hurling abuse and missiles at Lennon and his players, three Police officers were injured in the affray and Celtic released a strongly-worded statement condemning their behaviour.
Talking to talkSPORT host Jim White this morning Rod said the scenes ‘brought terrible shame’ on their club.
“I’m absolutely heartbroken, not only with the result yesterday but just all-round,”
“I’m heartbroken and disgusted. In all my years as a Celtic supporter I’ve never seen anything like that.
“Missiles being thrown at the players, it’s shameful; it makes the club look so irresponsible and it’s a proud old club.
“I think it’s small minority of the Green Brigade, but it’s unacceptable. They’ve brought terrible shame on the club.
“They do quite a lot when we’ve gone away. We’ve been fined over half a million pounds for the Green Brigade’s activities with fireworks and things – we could have bought another player for that!
“It’s not all of them, it’s small minority. The Green Brigade have brought a lot of colour and atmosphere to Celtic Park, but they’ve got to behave themselves.
“There’s a small crowd that want trouble; that’s what happened last night and it’s shameful, it really is.”
Talking about calls for Neil Lennon to be sacked Rod said
“Unless they have someone lined up to take Lennon’s place, I don’t think anyone would touch it would a bargepole,” he added.
“To take over Celtic halfway through the season, 11 points behind Rangers, it’s got to be a tough man to do it. So I would let Lenny finish the season.
“I think we owe it to him, I think he still can turn it around, more players have got to come in.
“I’m just shocked. Shocked, shocked, shocked.
“I don’t think there’s anybody who can take his place. I don’t think Eddie Howe would touch it, I really don’t.
“I think if anybody wanted the job they’d be desperate for work. I don’t think we should have a foreign manager. I think we’ve got to have a Scot or a Brit, someone who understands what this ten in a row means to Celtic and Celtic supporters.
“I’m afraid there are a few players who don’t want to be there and don’t really understand what this ten in a row means, and they’re not giving 100 per cent.”
photo Yve Paige