Motherwell defender Peter Hartley’s interview today ahead of the cup final proves two things – the man is a walking cliche and he doesn’t know the difference between contact in football and a UFC elbow to the face.
We were treated to some pre-match chat from Motherwell ahead of Sunday’s cup final and I couldn’t help but laugh at the sheer absurdity of some of Hartley’s statements.
When asked about Motherwell’s heavy-handed tactics and the fact one of their players broke an opposition players nose, Hartley responded by the mother of all football cliches.
“It’s a contact sport, isn’t it, football? Go and play basketball if you want to play a non-contact sport.”
There it is! Go and play basketball kids if you don’t fancy having your nose broken, eh? Really?
Football has and always will be a very physical sport, but a measured physical sport.
Brendan Rodgers spoke to the Referee association after the two semi-finals, sighting concerns over the protection of players on the pitch in the face of some pretty ridiculous challenges.
It was also earlier in the season when Kieran Tierney could easily have had his ankle snapped by a Motherwell player in a reckless and needless challenge.
Hartley continued – “Listen, we are a physical team. If we try and play Celtic at their game, they are going to beat us. We have got to play our game. Being physical, and getting on to second balls, being well organised, being well -drilled, it’s what we’re about and what the gaffer takes pride in. So we’re not going to change the way we are.”
Celtic expect teams to be physical against them but I think the Steelman are about to set the bar with some challenges that would probably look more home at Murrayfield than Hampden.
They are revelling in some sort of ‘Scottish Hardman’ persona and Hartley epitomises it.
When Brendan Rodgers spoke to the referee’s association, it was not to complain it should be a ‘non-contact sport’. Hell, the Celtic captain knows fine well how to put himself about and sometimes he’s crossed a line – for the most part, he is measured though. Controlled aggression rather than a cavalcade of over-exuberance that can only be justified in Hartley’s eyes by telling us to change sport. Get a grip.
