Stuart Kettlewell watched on from the car park as protests ensued at Celtic Park – and he says those fans have ‘soured’ a big Ross County occasion.
Celtic were knocked out the League Cup by a stellar Staggies side on Sunday, Kettlewell’s men winning 2-0 thanks to goals from Ross Stewart and Alex Iacovitti.
It ended a run of over 30 consecutive cup match victories for Celtic and bookmarked a historic day for County. But headlines have been dominated by home fans protesting for manager Neil Lennon’s exit at full-time.
Two police officers were injured according to reports and several Covid-19 guidelines were broken in the process. Kettlewell has labelled the events as ‘despicable.’
“We did have to get a police escort out of Parkhead and on to the motorway,” said the County manager. “The police to my mind dealt with the situation very well, they were excellent.
“It is was absolutely despicable. The whole situation for me soured a brilliant day for our club. It was a great day for our club.
“We understand what it means to Celtic and how despondent their fans would be and their players and officials would be.
“It is football, we all know that that happens but you have to realise we are in the middle of a global pandemic here and some of the scenes I see sitting on the bus, watching police fighting and trying their damndest to stop guys breaking the perimeter barriers they set out was just despicable.
“If we look at the bigger picture outside football, we have police wrestling with people who potentially could have the virus and they are putting themselves in the front line to try to contain a situation.
“I am not a Celtic official, I am not a Celtic supporter, Ross County is obviously my concern but I can only speak through sitting in that car park waiting to get away from Parkhead and it’s not scenes any of us want to see in Scottish football.
“Hopefully it is an isolated situation we don’t see again and people take heed that it is totally unacceptable.”
