Scott Brown admitted he was thrilled to get the green light for Celtic’s potential title party at Pittodrie – but he is adamant he should never been in the dock in the first place.
The Hoops skipper was sweating on a two match ban after being cited by the SFA for ‘not acting in the best interests of the game’ with his celebrations after victory in the dramatic late win over Rangers at Celtic Park.
Brown was cleared at last week’s Hampden hearing and he will lead his side out against Aberdeen this weekend and at Ibrox the following week.
But the skipper insisted there was no way he deserved to be carpeted by the beaks.
Brown said: “I’m delighted. I wasn’t worried. I don’t think I did anything really wrong.
“I spoke to the lawyer and he was happy to go forward with it and I spoke to Peter Lawwell as well.
“The SFA had to do something about it but they were happy enough at the end of the day that I didn’t overstep the mark.
“I walked away. I got smacked in the face and punched and I stood up and I walked away from when it was all going on, because somebody is usually looking to blame me so I made sure I stayed well clear of it all.
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“I had people jumping over me at Ibrox the last time. I took it on the chin, I walked away.
“Each to their own, they did well they managed to beat us at the end of December.
“They celebrated and I just walked down the tunnel and whatever happened when they came down the tunnel, celebrating and shouting, I just walked into the changing rooms.
“Each to their own, they celebrate, I celebrate. But we won and went 11 points clear and they obviously didn’t like the way we were celebrating.
“I’ve had a lot of highs and I’ll always get a lot of lows as well but when I do get the highs I enjoy them and I celebrate with my fans and my players.
“Yes, there was a lot (of celebrations from Rangers (at Ibrox).
“But we all respected that they were celebrating and they wanted to enjoy themselves. They caught up with us on points, although we had a game in hand.
“That was when we realised that we had to turn it around, get focused and we got ourselves ready for Rangers to come to Celtic Park.
“For us to get the goal quite late on to win the game was emotional and it is always going to be. People maybe seen that as a turning point in the league and they did not really like that.
“For me, it was a great day, it was enjoyable and it put us in a great place.”
Brown admitted he does wind up rivals – but he insisted it’s their problem if they react.
He said: “I’m doing something right! If people hate me it puts a smile on my face. It must mean I’m either playing well or I’m noising somebody up in the wrong way.
“I don’t care. I think for me I celebrated with my team-mates and a fight kicked off and I walked away from it.
“Somebody elbowed me in the face and I walked away from it.
“Somebody punched me in the face and I walked away from it. If I was a hooligan I’d have started a brawl in the middle of the pitch.
“But I just walked away from it all, I didn’t want to get myself booked or suspended. I think I acted quite well on the day.”
Brown copped flak for all angles – including from former Hoops no.2 John Collins – for riling up Rangers but he insisted he won’t change his game ahead of crunch clashes at Pittodrie and back at Ibrox.
Celtic need only a point to clinch the Premiership and he won’t be holding back on any possible celebrations.
Brown said: “Will I change? No. I am 33. I have two years left. What would be the point?
“Let’s be honest. I have done not bad. I think I have had five red cards since coming to Celtic in almost 600 games.
“There are a lot of people with worse records and I seem to get the blame for most things.
“Every pundit, punter and ex assistant managers as well tried to have a little go at me. so that was nice.
“I think for everyone it is a Rangers v Celtic game, whether I play at Hearts or Aberdeen, people get on to you.
“I take a lot but all I have done is celebrate with the Celtic fans after the game and if they can give it out for 90 minutes I am sure they can take it back for 10 seconds.”
