Aaron Donnelly was criticised after he appeared to refuse to celebrate his goal for Dundee against Celtic at Dens Park.
The 21 year old centre-back thought he had grabbed an historic winner – the Dark Blues haven’t beaten the Hoops at home for 37 years – when he headed home on 78 minutes against the champions at Dens Park on Tuesday night.
The Dee fans erupted with joy as a 3-2 win was truly becoming a reality. However, Donnelly merely held up his hands and looked to the turf refusing to celebrate. Afterwards, the Sky Sports pundits debated why the defender appeared to hold his hands up after putting his team in front and seemingly on their way to a famous victory. Hoops legend Neil Lennon expected more of a reaction, James McFadden was keen to give Donnelly the benefit of the doubt while Kris Boyd couldn’t resist a tongue-in-cheek dig.
Lennon: “I’ve been in that position myself – I didn’t score for five years!”
Boyd: “Did you say sorry after it as well?”
Lennon: “It was a JFK moment. The kid’s obviously a Celtic fan but he should show a little bit more I think. It’s a brilliant goal.”
McFadden: “If he’s genuine and he didn’t know what to do then fair enough but I don’t care if hels a Celtic fan – is he apologising to the Dundee fans behind the goals? It must be the fact that he’s not sure what to do and is surprised that he’s actually scored a goal.”
Boyd: “I saw him celebrating when the equaliser went in!”
However, the man himself claimed he was just at a loss for what to do after finding the back of the net. Speaking to Sky Sports after the game, Donnelly explained: “It was good to get on the scoresheet. It has been a while since I scored so I really enjoyed it. I was kind of taken back by what actually happened. There was a bit of a scuffle before and the ref pulled me and my marker aside. Once it [the ball] went in I really didn’t know what to do.”
He added: “I think Celtic is a great team. They compete in European competition and it just goes to show tonight that we can compete with teams like this. We were competing with Rangers the other night as well and got a great result. I think the boys dug really deep tonight and it was a great performance.”