It was an unwanted bolt from the blue so unexpected Alistair Johnston admits he didn’t have a scooby where it came from.
But the Hoops defender knows where it definitely didn’t come. And that was any sense of complacency. Celtic were not just absent from the races in Govan. It was more like the stables had been raided and taken to the glue factory.
Brendan Rodgers’ side were unrecognisable to the outfit that galloped through 2024 with just two defeats in 50 games all competitions. The are now zero from one in 2025 after a display so uncharacteristic it could have been a sequel to Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Johnston struggled to get his head around it too. Celtic were expected by many – including Rangers fans – to simply turn up, pocket the points, and head back across the city to leave the Ibrox side to deal with the fallout. Not many predicted what actually unfolded but Johnston was adamant it wasn’t expecting a trot.
The full back said: “I don’t think complacency is the word, it’s going to happen in football. They’re a good team and they punished us and unfortunately we couldn’t find a way to get to grips with the game and that comes down to us more than anything.
“You can see the passion in the guys’ eyes – but it wasn’t our day, we need to take our medicine and understand that as much as we want to perfect every day, we weren’t tonight.
“We were miles from our standard unfortunately, and that comes down to us. That’s the frustrating thing is that we had 90 minutes to recover and we couldn’t find a way to do the simple things in terms of the physicality of winning duels. I don’t think that we were at the races at all.
“I’m not a hundred percent sure where that performance came from to be honest. We didn’t start the game well, they got an early goal and then we struggled a little bit just to get out of our own way in a couple of instances, completing simple passes and breaking through their press.
“But credit to them, they came out and played a really good match. We weren’t at the races and in a match like this that has the quality and the emotion behind it, it can go one way pretty quickly and we obviously got caught on the wrong end of it tonight. Now we have to kick on, this could be a massive thing that we can use as motivation to remind ourselves that there’s a long way to go.”
This was Johnston’s first taste of an Old Firm defeat in his 11th encounter – and it’s not something he wants to bite down on again, any time soon. There was no attempt to sugar coat it though. He wasn’t going to look for any excuses.
Instead, the Canada ace insisted the Parkhead squad must accept the smacking and learn from it. There’s no point in lobbing babies out with bath water but there might be some things for Celtic to consider after conceding three goals to Gers for the second game on the bounce.
Like the first half of the League Cup Final at Hampden, it was Rangers who took control of the midfield – and forced Celtic to treat the ball like a box of Celebrations at Christmas. Johnston will give it food for thought and said: “Losing isn’t something that we’re used to and that’s a good sign obviously but it’s a great reminder that football isn’t played on paper, it’s played on that pitch and if you don’t show up then any team can beat you.
“It’s just something we’re going to have to take on the chin and move on from but it was a frustrated group. The points advantage isn’t something we’ve been thinking about going into this match.
“We’re just taking it day by day, match by match. We know that more than anything else it comes down to performances for us and that wasn’t anywhere near our level. When we play to our level then things tend to take care of themselves.”
Johnston might be in uncharted territory in dealing with the fallout from an Old Firm defeat but he knows what can be expected. And he’s not going to duck away from it either. No sensible punter is going to be heading to the Parkhead car park to protest given the success of the last 12 months.
But that won’t stop some short term pain before Celts look to get back on the horse against St Mirren on Sunday. Johnston said: “I can imagine our supporters are very disappointed with that. It’s up to us to instantly rebound and show that we’re not going to dwell on this.
“That’s one of the benefits of this crazy period. These matches mean more than points than the table. It’’s a tough one but we’re grown men and we’ll take it on the chin.
“They were the better team, on to the next one. But what we showed today wasn’t good enough, but we have plenty of opportunities in the near future to right our wrongs.
“It’s one of the matches that you don’t want that to happen in and that comes down to us as a group not putting in that effort from the get-go. But it’s a busy period and we’ve got to put this behind us and get ready for Sunday because the games come thick and fast.”