There is a temptation to describe Patrick Roberts as the sort of player who puts bums on seats, were it not for the fact that claim might be exposed tomorrow as a breach of the Trade Descriptions Act. They aren’t going to be queueing around the block to get into Celtic Park when Morton come to town tomorrow, not to see Roberts or anyone else in green-and-white.
Celtic fans are scunnered with their team, exasperated and at the end of their tether after too many disappointments this season and too many drab, listless performances. The attendance was only 13,591 when they faced Raith Rovers in the League Cup in September and tomorrow’s crowd won’t be much above that.
One fan was pictured in The Sun yesterday lying across a row of empty seats, apparently sleeping. The picture was amusing but when fans are so bored a nap becomes preferable to the game they eventually get angry. Some of the diehards who will turn up tomorrow left the Dundee game on Wednesday night viciously booing the goalless draw they had endured. Tolerance levels are low and any difficulty putting away Morton, their mid-table Championship opposition in the William Hill Scottish Cup quarter-final, will poison the atmosphere inside Celtic Park whether it’s two-thirds empty or not.
Celtic’s players were a bag of nerves in the closing stages against Dundee, hearing jeers and heckles raining down and growing jumpy and jittery about the fact they couldn’t score while the opposition threatened to get a late winner.
The booing clearly upset plenty of them. At least Roberts, who escaped the supporters’ wrath and was arguably Celtic’s most impressive player on the night, wasn’t likely to wilt because of the atmosphere. The 19-year-old, on loan from Manchester City until the end of next season, is intelligent and self-contained. And, even at his age, he has been through it before.
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“I was in a relegation team at Fulham [they went down in 2013-14]. We lost nearly every game so we were booed constantly by our own fans, and they’re not known for being rough. They were nice fans, Hammersmith and Fulham are good areas of London. I was only young then and I was just at the club for a year-and-a-half but I experienced a lot there and that’s helped me in my career. It’s a bit different being booed when you’re top of the league [Celtic are four points clear] but we’re expected to win constantly. It’s not great when they boo but it’s part and parcel of football. Fans get angry so now we’ve got to play better and prove them wrong.
“Pressure’s good for me, I think. The more pressure there is the better I play because, when your back’s up against the wall, you have something to prove. The most important thing is that you play for the supporters because without them it would just be a boring game of football. They bring more entertainment to the game than we do because of the excitement they generate. That’s why, when they pay money to watch you every week, you’ve got to give them something back and let them watch some good football.
“As soon as the ball came to me against Dundee I had one idea in my head and that was to go forward at the defender to see what he was like. I’ve always felt confident on the pitch. It gives me a lift when the fans take to me straight away. I think it’s to do with the way I play. I had it at Fulham and Man City as well. The way I play is quite eyecatching, maybe.”
Roberts is exempt from criticism and from booing on two grounds. He turned 19 only last month and he has appeared in the Celtic team only twice. His ,quick feet and enthusiasm for getting on the ball and running at defenders ought to make him a natural fit with Celtic supporters. His number 27 shirt is hardly illustrious, but he follows in the footsteps of earlier wee men who have enthralled fans with a ball at their feet.
“[Former Celtic midfielder] Peter Grant was at Fulham during my time there and one day I was walking out the tunnel and one of the fans said to me ‘ask him about Jimmy Johnstone’. I had no clue what he was on about so I never asked Peter about him, but when I came here I found out they rave about Jimmy Johnstone. Allan Preston [his agent] looks after me up here and he goes on about ‘Jinky’ Johnstone, saying he was an unbelievable player.”
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How times have changed. For Celtic fans, the way they played in midweek was unbelievable too.