The SPL's two top sides should have clashed head on at Celtic Park yesterday but instead they sort of stumbled into each other, mumbled their apologies and shuffled off on their separate ways again much to the consternation of the fans. But while most folk will want to erase this drab, soulless 0-0 draw from their memory banks for ever Willo Flood will always look back fondly on his first Glasgow derby and his first game for the club.
Flood had expected a place on the bench at best for yesterdays game and he was shocked when Gordon Strachan plunged him straight into the side "I was very surprised to be told I was starting," he said. "When the manager told me I was like, yeah, are you serious?'. He told me to just go out and do what I had been doing for Dundee United for the last two seasons. Celtic is a huge club and the derby game is one of the biggest in the world, but you don't think about that when you're out there. All you are thinking about is trying to play well and do your best for the team. I think my debut went okay. It has been a long time coming but it was good to get my debut over with and hopefully now you will see the real Willo Flood."
And it was almost a dream debut for Willo when he scampered through on the right and sent in a perfect cross for Scott McDonald in Celtic's only clear cut chance of the entire game. "The first 20 minutes was intense and it was a bit faster than I had anticipated." said Flood, "When I put the cross in for Scott I thought, oh, here we go, and 99 times out of 100 I think he'd have scored it,
Walter Smith had announced that he was going to Celtic Park looking for a draw, and after watching this insipid match it would have been difficult to argue against the theory that Celtic boss Strachan had happily acquiesced to Wattie's wishes, but Flood doesn't think that the Rangers championship cause has benefitted greatly by the result. "I think a draw is still a decent result for us." he said, "It is up to them to catch us and if we keep picking up points then the league will be ours. But, overall, I would have to say a draw was probably a fair result."
Willo was also pleased to see Artur Boruc have a fine game yesterday and he expects that the big keeper will take a lot of heart from his performance after a difficult time recently. "Artur has shown that when he is on the football pitch he is capable of being up there with the best." said the young Irishman, "I think everybody knows he can be a top, top goalkeeper and hopefully the saves he had will give him the confidence to kick on now, but I think deep down he knows already he is one of the best in Europe."