James Forrest scored a record-breaking goal as Celtic secured a point against St Mirren, and then celebrated clinching the 2024/25 Premiership title.
But over in Edinburgh, for Barry Ferguson’s final game as Rangers boss, the Premiership’s second-placed club recorded a 2-2 draw at Hibernian.
Nicolas Raskin thought he had scored for the Gers, with replays showing the ball had crossed the line, but with no goal-line technology in Scotland, VAR didn’t intervene and reverse the call.
That left Rangers fuming, including their former player John Brown, whose comments have landed him in hot water, as Celtic legend Martin O’Neill had the most brilliant of responses to it all.
John Brown’s Rangers controversy and Martin O’Neill’s Celtic response
As reported on talkSPORT, ‘Rangers have been fined £3k’ by the SFA for Brown claiming during the game against Hibernian that it was ‘corrupt’.
The former defender also stated that it was the ‘worst decision I have seen in all my years in football’, as his fellow commentator tried to play it all down and told him, ‘I am not sure we can quite actually say that.’
That controversy was discussed by O’Neill on talkSPORT, and whilst he stated that Brown was wrong to make his ‘corrupt’ claims, he mentioned how, if that goal had gone in for Rangers, then it would have only closed the 17-point gap to Celtic by a few more points.
“I would say it’s corrupt,” claimed Brown in May on Rangers’ official TV channel. Before his fellow Rangers commentator responded: “Well, I am not sure we can quite actually say that.”
Brown then continued: “Well, I am saying it – that’s a disgrace. It’s a disgrace, it’s the worst decision I have seen in all my years in football.”
O’Neill responded: “The club can’t divorce itself from saying, ‘it was his comments and it has nothing to do with the club’. It is a club channel, and therefore, he shouldn’t be saying it. He doubled down on it when he had the chance to apologise.
“Let’s put it in its context. The goal that might have stood against Hibs meant that Rangers were only going to lose the league by 17 points or 19 points, or whatever the case may be. It’s a bit of fun.”
Jim White responded: “You are loving this.”
https://www.youtube.com/live/5sPji8-7s9g?si=kWFAXIj_uhHvIfQb
Celtic and Rangers are ‘as paranoid’ as each other
Playing for either Glasgow club isn’t easy because of the pressure and scrutiny players, managers, and board members are under.
O’Neill experienced that for many years, including coming into that pressure cooker when Rangers were dominating, before flipping all of that on its head, including winning a Treble.
But the legendary coach thinks that there is a tendency for both Celtic and Rangers to be ‘as paranoid’ as each other.
“Listen, I have seen it on the other side,” added O’Neill. “I have seen it with us, with us being Celtic. We are every bit as paranoid as Rangers are.”
