Callum McGregor has accused Rangers of lacking humility after their Old Firm defeat and says Celtic captain Scott Brown was assaulted twice in the win.
The midfielder insisted his team were fully entitled to celebrate their success on Sunday just the same as the Ibrox team who gave it big licks after their triumph in December.
But while Parkhead players took their medicine and trudged up the tunnel following their setback in Govan, angry scenes erupted as the Hoops won this time.
McGregor believes his team did nothing differently in success as their rivals did three months previously, yet the response was nowhere near the same.
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He said: “As a football player, and especially playing in a Celtic against Rangers game, you are entitled to celebrate and I don’t think anything was over the top. The game actually finished over in that corner. Nobody ran anywhere else in the stadium.
“They celebrated where they were on the pitch and, in my eyes, there was nothing wrong with anything that any of the Celtic players did.
“If you look back at the December game, Rangers deserved to win it and they celebrated on the pitch just as much as we did on Sunday.
“But I think the difference is we took it. We just put our heads down, took our medicine and we got up the tunnel.
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“So in terms of that, the conduct of the Rangers players maybe was not great. That’s up to Rangers the way they want to conduct themselves. We always try to do it with humility.”
Brown was accused of sparking the melee by facing away fans for a moment as he celebrated at full-time, having also been elbowed by Alfredo Morelos and decked by Ryan Kent during the game.
McGregor was stunned at the treatment of his skipper and said: “He has basically been assaulted twice for a wee bit of mind games.
“It’s always part of the game in these big games. Players will try to wind each other up.
“I don’t think Broonie did anything that bad to provoke anything. It happens in football, it’s a charged atmosphere.”
