Callum McGregor admits that his penalty miss in the Scottish Cup Final shootout against Aberdeen was the toughest moment of his football career, but the Celtic captain has vowed to show that he has the ‘steel’ to bounce back from such a crushing low.
McGregor stepped up first for Celtic as he tried to set the tone for his team, but he watched on in horror as Aberdeen keeper Dimitar Mitov guessed right and palmed away his effort.
The Dons keeper later saved from Alistair Johnston too to seal a stunning victory for Jimmy Thelin’s men, with a visibly emotional McGregor having to be consoled by manager Brendan Rodgers as the men in red partied on the Hampden pitch.
“That’s the worst, I’ll just need to try and get away and get over it and come back next year and be stronger,” McGregor said.
“It’s a tough moment, I’ve had tough moments before.
“Probably this the toughest one when you take everything into consideration.
“Listen, I’ve bounced back from difficult positions before and it will take me a while to get over it.
“But once the new season starts, that’s up to me to show everyone I’ve got a bit of steel.”
That was the message too from his manager.
“He just said it can happen to anyone,” he said.
“It’s obviously a personal moment but the gist of it was he just told me to keep my head up, that I’d done so much for the club and had so much success.”
McGregor was indeed contesting his 15th final at the national stadium and had won all of the previous 14, making the defeat to the Dons even more of a shock to the system.
“We’re so used to winning that when you don’t you feel it 10 times more,” he said. “You feel it more.
“It’s probably the worst moment I’ve had on the football pitch. And for sure there will be learning in that. It’s just so raw at the minute.
“For sure, the group can learn from it, can be better from it. Sometimes you have to go through a bit of adversity to grow and get better.
“We’re so used to winning, and maybe we’ve turned up the last couple of times and we’ve managed to get over the line without really deserving it. Maybe this was the one that came back to bite us.
“We didn’t do enough in the game to deserve it. And when it gets to penalties anything can happen. In the past we’ve come out on the right side of it but today we didn’t.
“It’s a real sore way to finish the season. Up to this, it’s been an amazing season. We just didn’t do enough to day to cap it off.”
The Celtic team made a point of staying on the field to applaud Aberdeen as they lifted the Scottish Cup, and McGregor didn’t enjoy being on that side of the trophy presentation one bit, but he says that it can be a useful source of motivation in the weeks ahead.
“You have to stand and watch that,” he said.
“It’s where we want to be. We’ve been lucky we’ve not had it too many times and when you see that it’s just so raw, so hurtful.
“You have to use it as fuel when you come back and try and never be in that position again.
“It’s been an amazing season up to this point. It’s the last day and it doesn’t go your way and the whole thing feels like it’s pointless.
“That’s because it’s been so good, we’ve managed to get to these moments and get through them. But it’s just a wee reminder that you have to earn it - and we didn’t earn it today.
“We didn’t do enough in the top half of the pitch to really open them up and take the chances. We have to live with that as well.
“It gives us room for improvement, and we come back next year. It gives us a target to aim for.”
