Roberts: How we pulled off Cup shock v Celtic
Clyde manager Graham Roberts knew his team could capitalise on defensive inexperience to claim a stunning Tennent’s Scottish Cup third-round win over Celtic.
The Bully Wee dumped the holders out of the competition in a 2-1 win at Broadwood where goals from Craig Bryson and Eddie Malone sealed one the biggest shocks in Scottish football.
Maciej Zurawski claimed a consolation for the Hoops as Roy Keane’s debut ended in disaster where the home side also saw two goals disallowed and Celtic keeper Artur Boruc save a penalty.
But the Clyde boss recognised the debut of Hoops defender Du Wei was more likely to work in the favour of the Bell’s First Division club.
The China international was run ragged by Bully Wee striker Tom Brighton in the first half before being replaced by Adam Virgo.
Roberts told BBC Scotland: “We felt, with the loss of Stilian Petrov and Bobo Balde, we could get behind them and, with the inexperience they had at the back, cause them a lot of problems.
“We worked hard on this all week and the boys did it with perfection. Anybody watching the game will say we deserved to win comfortably.
“Everybody thought the goals we had chalked off would go against us, but the boys kept working hard. They scored two fantastic goals and could have had two or three more.”
But, after only compiling his squad through ‘auditions’ in the summer, Roberts believes he and assistant, Joe Miller, reaped the full dividends of their own hard work on Sunday.
The former Rangers and Tottenham defender gave trials to a number of released players in the summer when he joined the cash-strapped Cumbernauld club.
Roberts added: “We were very emotional after the game and we have put a lot of hard work into it. We got our just rewards yesterday at the end of it. Some of the football we played was fantastic.
“We will give Gretna the same respect we gave Celtic and, hopefully, we can get the right result.”
