Andy Halliday has explained his match-winning celebration for Motherwell at the weekend came about “purely because it was against Hibs.”
The Steelmen star is a former Hearts midfielder which is always going to earn you a bit of stick down at Easter Road. But on top of that, he was part of the Rangers side which lost to the Hibees in the 2016 Scottish Cup final, scoring and celebrating in front of the fans before the Leith men launched a late comeback.
The 32-year-old was already mocked for that by the Hibs faithful, who even had a song about him as a result. But Halliday was able to get a bit of revenge when wearing maroon by scoring a double in a 3-1 derby win, copying old Gers teammate Alfredo Morelos’ celebration just to wind up the green and white hordes even more.
It seemed like a script had been written on Saturday as the midfielder popped up to score the winner for Well at Easter Road, and lo and behold he pulled out that old celebration again.
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Halliday’s Motherwell celebration at Hibs explained
He admits that he only celebrated like that because his winning goal came against the Hibees and he wouldn’t have done it in ANY other fixture.
Halliday says he gets piles of abuse when playing in Leith and so was merely taking his chance to give back. But he insists it is all innocent fun and hopes it is taken that way.
He said on Open Goal: “That was purely because it was against Hibs. I wouldn’t do it against anybody else. Because I did the celebration in the derby and they hated it, and I was getting next level abused.
“The abuse I was taking at corners – mental. I fully admit – that was pre-planned. If I’m scoring, I’m going for it.
“It’s all in good jest. I know any time I play against Hibs or a couple of other teams I am going to take a bit of stick. If you are a professional football player you need to expect that at times. You always look to get these wee nuggets when you can to give a bit back.
“It’s all in good jest and hopefully it is taken that way. It is good to get the bragging rights for Motherwell at the end of the day.”
Halliday vs Hibs beef
As mentioned, it all started when Halliday put Rangers 2-1 up in the 2016 Scottish final before doing a “calm down” gesture to fans who had been getting uptight.
However, that wasn’t the final word as Hibs finished the game as strongly as they had started and equalised through Anthony Stokes’ second. The stage was then set for David Gray to head home from Liam Henderson’s corner and end the Hibees’ 114-year wait for the trophy.
Hibs fans liked to remind him of that at every opportunity with a song about how he “could have won the cup, but…”
That ramped up when Halliday moved to rivals Hearts and so he loved it then when he went on to bang in a double in a 3-1 win dubbed the ‘Halliderby’ and that’s when he decided to do the Morelos celebration.