It had to be Andy Halliday that scored against Rangers to open the scoring for Motherwell to put the team he loves under a world of pressure.
As has become the custom for modern footballers after hitting the back of the net, the 33-year old acknowledged his former team’s support by not over-celebrating – a goal that saw some half-time conversations and an intervention from Philippe Clement.
Bizarrely, Halliday, who was a regular at Ibrox in his youth, has seen his reaction come under criticism for not rejoicing on the biggest stage, a far cry from a certain Maurice Johnston scoring his first Old Firm goal for Rangers some 35 years ago, to the day.
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Andy Halliday celebration reaction against Rangers questioned
To give an example of the outrage following Halliday’s goal BBC presenter, and known Aberdeen fan, Richard Gordon, couldn’t hide his displeasure on Sportsound at the veteran midfielder’s actions:
“This whole thought of not celebrating… maybe he was ecstatic inside and probably the Motherwell fans won’t give a jot if that turns out to be the winning goal,” questioned Gordon.
“But isn’t that a bit disrespectful to the club? The team who pays your wages? The supporters who back you every week? Essentially, what he did was an ‘I’m sorry’ gesture. It just feels bizarre, you’ve scored such a good goal in the semi-final and you’re almost apologetic about it.”
As Billy Dodds replied to Gordon, Halliday strained every muscle, tendon and ligament to score, that should be how the Motherwell fans judge him, not how he celebrated.
When Maurice Johnston won Rangers fans over with Old Firm winner
Players at a much higher level than the SPFL have done similar and been applauded for respecting their old clubs, however, their old clubs weren’t Rangers.
Gordon has been around Scottish football for a long time, unfortunately, there aren’t any records of what he thought of Johnston scoring a dramatic late winner against Celtic after his controversial about turn to sign for Graeme Souness in 1989.
Forming a lethal partnership with Ally McCoist, Johnston quickly turned opinion from the dissenting voices amongst the Rangers support by showing how much scoring against his boyhood team meant.
Johnston would go on to finish the season as top goalscorer in the league as Rangers made it two-in-a-row and cemented himself as a fans’ favourite and Celtic’s most hated.
