Feisty and nasty- Matt O’Riley’s brutal Blackburn Rovers verdict

Matt O’Riley wasn’t beating about the bush after Celtic’s pre-season friendly with Blackburn Rovers. 

Three yellow cards were dished out to the visitors during the first half with only Kevin Clancy’s leniency keeping the card count down. 

Almost all of the Celtic players took a dunt or two with Tony Ralston coming off late on after having his boot split by another late challenge. 

A friendly with an edge at this stage of the season is welcome but there could easily have been an injury or two to concern the Celtic medical team. 

Discussing the approach of the Championship side, O’Riley told The Sun: 

They were feisty, a bit nasty and left a few on a few of us. Tony’s boot was split in half, which says enough, but it was competitive and it’s what we want. 

We have to handle it because we’ll come up against teams in the Scottish Prem who’ll try to kick us to try to stop us. But if we’re on it with the counter press and crisp on the ball the rest will take care of itself. 

Next up for Celtic is a trip to Poland to take on Legia Warsaw in a match that is unlikely to be friendly despite the Artur Boruc connection. 

In 2014 the two clubs had an explosive clash in the Champions League that saw Celtic advance on a 4-4 aggregate after Legia fielded an ineligible player in the closing minutes of the return leg at Murrayfield which resulted in Celtic being awarded a 3-0 victory.