NO wonder Celtic manager Ronny Deila read the riot act to fellow Norwegian Stefan Johansen following the penalty fiasco during last Wednesday’s Champions League qualifier against Stjarnan of Iceland.
If Leigh Griffiths had scored you’d have bet your house on them going through with a 3-0 first-leg advantage.
Instead, Johansen’s petulance in wanting to take the penalty himself clearly put Griffiths off.
A two-goal lead should be enough for Celtic but three would have eliminated all doubt.
Deila was right to brand Johansen unprofessional. Griffiths is Celtic’s official penalty taker even when he only appears as a substitute as he did on Wednesday.
This isn’t the first time Celtic have been caught out by players arguing over who takes penalties. It happened earlier this year during the League Cup Final against Dundee United.
Then James Forrest and John Guidetti had a spat over who would take the award before Forrest stepped up and missed. Fortunately for Celtic this didn’t prevent them winning.
One of these days it will, unless Deila installs discipline over these matters.
In years gone by, fans were never in doubt over who would take penalties when their favourites were awarded spot-kicks.
My first memory is Doug Cowie’s immaculate performances from the spot in the 1950s. The then Dundee captain practised until he was perfect.
After training he would place a seagull feather just inside the post and wouldn’t call it a day until he was striking the plumage every time.
Around the same time South African winger Johnny Hubbard displayed the same accuracy for Rangers scoring 65 times out of 68 attempts from the spot.
A decade later, Celtic defender Tommy Gemmell used a different technique. ‘Big Tam’ went for power over accuracy, aiming for the goalie’s head and hitting the ball as hard as he could usually around 70mph. Again, he hardly ever missed.
During the first season of the Premier Division, 1975-76, Dundee United’s fight for survival wasn’t helped by missing six penalties in succession until skipper Hamish McAlpine took responsibility.
No surprise there except McAlpine was United’s goalie!
There was no problem until he hit the post against Rangers at Ibrox and had to set a new Scottish record for the 100-yard sprint to get back to his goal.
So don’t expect Celtic keeper Craig Gordon to take any penalties in Iceland this week.
And don’t expect their players to argue about who does, either.
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