Andy Halliday has strongly defended his decision not to celebrate his goal for Motherwell in their Premier Sports Cup semi-final against his old club Rangers.
The midfielder opened the scoring after just 25 minutes at Hampden, but has faced backlash from supporters after holding his hands up in respect to the Light Blues as his Steelmen teammates celebrated the goal wildly. Unfortunately for Motherwell, Sunday’s encounter ultimately ended in defeat, with goals from Cyriel Dessers and Nedim Bajrami completing a comeback for Rangers to relieve some pressure on under-fire boss Philippe Clement.
But Halliday – who scored 18 goals in 152 matches at Ibrox between 2015 and 2020 – has branded the reaction to his celebration snub as ’embarrassing’. Speaking shortly after Clyde 1 Superscoreboard went live on Monday night, the pundit said: “Nothing should surprise me in the west of Scotland.
“I’ve heard that comment (that he was apologising for scoring) being bandied about over the last couple of days, which to me is embarrassing. I’ll try to bite my tongue as much as I can before I start digging out individuals shall I say?
“Maybe I regret the hands up as that sort of gestures being apologetic, but I certainly wasn’t apologising for scoring a goal. What I would say is if I played Rangers at Hearts next week then I still wouldn’t celebrate.
“I’ll never do something to appease other people, that’s for sure. I don’t regret that side of it at all. Shall we rewind the tape a few weeks ago when Louis Moult scored against Motherwell? Or is that forgotten about?”
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