Raging Celtic hero left 'thumping his fists' at Ibrox over woeful Hoops as four 'awful' flops called out
A Celtic hero has been left angry by what he witnessed during his former side’s defeat vs Rangers.
Celtic great Pat Bonner has called out four Hoops flops over their Old Firm display that left him banging his fists on the Ibrox press deck.
Rangers won 3-0 against his former side thanks to a Dan Neil double and Kevin Kelsy effort in the Premier Sports Cup quarter-final. Martin O’Neill’s side were out of sorts throughout the 90 minutes and host their league foes in front of their own fans next weekend in the Premiership. No away fans were allowed in the game, but Bonner was on Sportsound duties, and made his anger clear.
Host Richard Gordon joked Bonner ‘cut a frustrated figure throughout, he was constantly pointing and gesticulating, and thumping his fists down, anger, and you're not like that.’ Bonner responded with a Hoops rant on the woe they suffered, with a Celtic quartet named in his evisceration of the display. He said: “I'm not like that normally. That tells you how bad Celtic were. Rangers were very, very good , and I was shocked at how well they played, but I was utterly shocked at how bad Celtic were.
What Celtic players struggled vs Rangers?
“It’s bottle. When you come up against a good Rangers team in this venue, when you don't have your fans, you've got to go out there and show that you are taking responsibility. You want to move. You want to run. You want to get on the ball.
“I'm looking at the players up front. I'm sorry, these are the players that Celtic have bought. Kasper Hogh, Camillo Duran, Sebastian Tounekti, Mika Baur. Hasseim Hassan a little bit. You can't give him because he only came on in the second half. But those guys, they were awful.
“I'm looking at Duran and he played almost like an inside right position. When you had three centre-backs, obviously man for man, it was so easy for them. If you stay in there, I'll go and man-mark you. But see if you pull me outside, away out to the touchline when I don't want to go there and create big space... that didn't happen. I was shocked over what I was watching out in the pitch.
“I think taking James Penrice in there was a masterstroke also for Rangers because the Celtic players really didn't know what to do in that middle of the pitch. They didn't know how to get on the ball. They pinned them over one side. They didn't allow them to switch the game. They had to come all around, as we talked in commentary, and it was back to the goalkeeper, back over, back out this side, back over, back over.
Pat Bonner on Rangers 3-0 Celtic
“Especially in that first half, Richard, you know what I mean? They couldn't progress up the pitch. They really couldn't. There were spaces down the side of those centre-backs. Celtic didn't want to exploit it at all and they had no runs coming from the players. The pass was on, then it was not, no, no, go back again. Tounekti never got to the by-line once in that first half when he was on the pitch.
“So, with all the great things you talk about Rangers, Celtic were absolutely awful, and if they don't get it right next week, it will be the same. They have got to change it.
“It’ll be in front of their fans, but take the fans out of it, you've got to have a bottle. You've got to come here and switch all that out. I've been here before playing in a game where we didn't have fans. You have to have bottle.
“How do you stop the Rangers fans from celebrating? Dominate the game. Get out there and that turns them against their own players. Celtic didn't even do that.”
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