Liam Scales reveals Celtic dressing room reaction to 'crumbling' claim as Brendan Rodgers proves master again

Liam Scales reckons a Double will silence the critics who said Celtic were crumbling.

The Parkhead side head to Hampden looking to sink Rangers and secure a second trophy of the term having bagged a third-straight Premiership crown. Celtic’s foundations look strong at the business end of the season and Scales wants his team to grab more glory. At the beginning of the campaign, Brendan Rodgers’ team had their Viaplay Cup ripped away when defeated in the last 16 by Kilmarnock. Celtic were given a hard time for that loss and other below-par performances during the campaign which saw them fall behind at one stage in the title race having lost a healthy lead.

Scales says it would be satisfying to end the season on a Double high after some of the stick. He admitted: “That would be amazing. The season didn’t start very well getting knocked out of the League Cup early on. A lot of the narrative was about us crumbling a bit. And it would just be great to put that to bed with a double.”

Rodgers pointed out some of the criticism to his players and Scales continued: “Yeah he did, he showed us that before the game. Looking back, I didn’t really realise that at the time as I sort of keep away from that sort of stuff. But we were criticised from all angles. It was going on in the background for me, but it will be great to get it over the line this weekend and prove people wrong I suppose, which is always a nice thing to do.”

Belief was maintained within the dressing-room and levels lifted when it counted. Scales said: “We didn’t need anyone to tell us that there were times when we weren’t performing as well as we should have been. We could feel that ourselves. We don’t need to hear it from, say, pundits. We know when we’re good or when we’re bad. There were spells when we struggled a little bit.

"It was the first season back for the manager and a new sort of style and it just took a little bit of time to get used to it. Over the last few weeks, we’ve hit a good run and, hopefully, we can continue that into the Final.”

Celtic head into the Hampden showpiece with an outstanding record against their Glasgow rivals over the course of the season. In four Premiership meetings, Rodgers’ team won both games at home and secured one success and a draw from two visits to Ibrox.

But Scales knows it’s a new day on neutral territory and said: “We can look at that in a way that, we know if we perform well we’ll have a good chance of winning the game. But we also know that, if we don’t get to our levels, we could easily lose the game. It’s a cup final and anything can happen.

“You can take positive things from those results, but if you get carried away and think we’re going to stroll it then we’ll lose the game 100 percent. It’s about taking away the positives from those games [against Rangers] and trying to replicate that on the weekend and, hopefully, get the result we want.”