Josh Windass learned a painful lesson at Hampden as he tucked into his post match humble pie.
The jump from playing for Accrington Stanley to facing Champions League opponents proved too much with the midfielder substituted long before the final whistle.
It was Windass’ second experience of the Glasgow derby and although the scoreline on Sunday was more flattering the gulf between the two clubs was every bit as emphatic as the 5-1 league win Celtic enjoyed in September.
Scott Brown described that match as men against boys with Windass jumping at the bait when asked about the Celtic skipper’s comments.
“Is that what he said?,” the former Accrington favourite responded. “He can say what he wants. I can’t really speak for Scott Brown.
“He played reasonably well on the day and fair play they beat us but just wait until the next time.”
Next time came around sooner than Windass expected. On Sunday at Hampden he had little chance to impress as Brown dominated the midfield and beyond. Not bad for someone who’d been playing in the Champions League four days earlier while Windass played FIFA17.
Having suffered another reality check about his teams limitations, today Windass admitted: “Sunday was probably the worst I’ve played since I’ve been here, which is disappointing. I’d love to have played better but some days you just don’t turn up. Unfortunately for me Sunday was one of those days.
“It was my first start since coming back from being injured. I’ve had a hamstring injury but I wouldn’t have played in a big game like that if I wasn’t fit. I was fit so I’ve no excuses.
“They were the better team on the day. They played better in bigger spells than we did and that’s the reason why they won the game.
“People talk about this gap but Celtic have got three or four times our budget, so in that respect it’s quite difficult [to close it]. We are working hard each day and I think you saw yesterday compared to the last game it is starting to get closer.”
It seems that budget is the new excuse from Ibrox these days, conveniently forgetting that the team with the bigger budget lost in the final of the Scottish Cup last season.
When it comes to season ticket renewal time it’s unlikely that Sevco will be reminding their fans that they can’t get the better of a team with a larger budget.
