Patrick Roberts not haunted by Old Firm open goal miss
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Trailing 1-0 to Mark Warburton’s side in the William Hill Scottish Cup semi-final at Hampden last season, the 19-year-old, on loan from Manchester City, was presented with a golden opportunity when Leigh Griffiths’ shot rebounded off the post but with the goal gaping he hit the side netting.
Celtic levelled through Erik Sviatchenko and the game ended 2-2 before the Light Blues emerged triumphant on penalties, only to lose the final to Hibernian.
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Ahead of the first Ladbrokes Premiership meeting between the two Glasgow giants at Celtic Park in four years, Roberts was asked if the miss haunted him.
He replied: “You don’t worry about that too much. It doesn’t faze me. It was a bad miss and it happens in football, it happens all the time.
“I tried to do it too perfect and it didn’t come off. Next time that will be in the back of the net.
“I learned from the last game. That was quite intense. I thoroughly enjoyed that. I can only improve every game and I will go into this game even better than I was then.”
Much of the attention at Celtic Park will be on Rangers midfielder Joey Barton and Celtic captain Scott Brown.
The 34-year-Englishman had no sooner signed for Rangers in the summer when he declared Brown was “nowhere near my level” as a player.
Roberts insisted that the issue has not been the talk of the Hoops dressing room.
He said: “I just want to play my football. I don’t want to get involved in that.
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Hide Ad“You know what Scott is like, Scott just gets on with his football, he loves playing his football and he loves playing for Celtic.
“It is not mentioned at all, we will just get on and play our game.”
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