CELTIC match winner Alistair Johnston tonight admitted the “patchy” Parkhead pitch is preventing the Scottish champions from playing the free-flowing football their manager Brendan Rodgers wants to see – but stressed they can’t use it as an excuse for poor performances.
Canadian right back Johnston scored his first ever goal at Celtic Park after just 54 seconds of the cinch Premiership game against second-bottom Ross County this afternoon and his strike was all that separated the two teams at the end of the 90 minutes.
The defender acknowledged that it had not been the Glasgow club’s finest performance of the 2023/24 campaign and confessed the conditions underfoot had made it hard for them to produce their best football.
READ MORE: Celtic 1 Ross County 0: Instant reaction to the burning issues
“It’s patchy,” he said. “That’s a nice way to describe it. I’m not exactly sure, I’m not an expert on agriculture or landscaping. But I think it’s difficult not getting a ton of sunlight given how big Celtic Park is.
“The away team coming see it’s difficult and it probably doesn’t play to our favour with how we play. But both teams play on it and we’ve all grown up playing on much worse. It’s flat, that’s all we can ask for. When you come out of winter it’ll be green again I’m hoping.”
Johnston - who had only scored one goal for Celtic, in a rout of St Mirren in Paisley last season, before today – confessed that he had been delighted to open his account at Parkhead in the very first minute.
“I need to see the time on the clock again,” he said. “It felt quick. I’ll take that. It wasn’t pretty but none of mine ever will be. So getting one was nice as was getting the quick start which could have kickstarted a better result. But a clean sheet at home after scoring in the first minute, you can’t ask for more than that.”
He is certain the league leaders, who played their first competitive game since the winter break against Buckie Thistle in the Scottish Cup last Sunday, will improve as they take part in more competitive matches.
READ MORE: Brendan Rodgers opens up on negative Celtic fan reaction
“I thought Ross County did a really good job with their organisation,” said Johnston. “The keeper made good saves and they made it difficult with their pressure on the ball. They rallied and kept pressing. Not every team does that and their level of fitness and organisation kept them in the game and they made it very difficult for us till the end.
“We’re just focused on getting into our rhythm. We know if we start playing football the results will come. Coming out of the break we’re finding our feet again and getting that rhythm.
“That’s when the top teams kick into gear and we want to look back and say no matter what happens we went through a purple patch playing our football. If we play the way we want to then we can get three points every match so it’s in our hands.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel