Celtic recover from Saturday night horror show to triumph at Tennent’s Sixes
Despite suffering a 7-1 thumping from their Glasgow rivals Rangers in the group stages, Celtic won the Tennent’s Sixes and gained some revenge on the latest Ibrox club by beating their suspiciously young team 5-4 in a thrilling finale at the Braehead Arena.
All 12 SPFL Premiership sides took part in the two-day tournament at the home of Ice Hockey side Braehead clan, which was transformed into a football venue for the weekend.
The sixes was a popular winter tournament back in the 1980s and early 1990s, but back then it was first team players who took part in the competition, as opposed to the ex-pros who took part in the revived modern format.
The former Celts who took part were: Barry John Corr, Charlie Mulgrew, Glenn Loovens, Efe Ambrose, Jonny Hayes, Aiden McGeady, Gary Hooper, Joe Ledley, Derek Riordan. And the team was managed by Tom Boyd and Simon Donnelly.
The Saturday session saw the team of former Celtic players win their opening game 5-2 against Kilmarnock, but they then suffered a heavy 7-1 defeat to Rangers on Saturday night.
Sunday saw the Hoops beat St Mirren 4-0 to set up a quarter-final clash with Falkirk, which Celtic won 6-3. And in the semi-final, St Johnstone were defeated 6-1.
That meant the second Glasgow Derby of the competition, and Celtic twice found themselves two goals behind in the final but they fought back, with Gary Hooper scoring the all-important goal to give Celtic a 5-4 win and see them lift the Tennent’s Sixes trophy.
The Rangers, looking for their first ever Tennent’s Sixes trophy to add to their one Scottish Premiership title, one Scottish Cup and one League Cup success in their history, were never behind in the entire tournament at the weekend – until Gary Hooper skelped in the late fifth Celtic goal to make sure that the cup ended up in Paradise.
The Rangers and their supporters may have been celebrating on Saturday night, but the Celts got the last laugh by winning when it matters. Hopefully that’s also going to be the story for the Celtic first team who are back in action this Sunday at Fir Park to take on Motherwell.
Last night was only the second time ever that Celtic won the Tennent’s Sixes, with the last triumph coming back in 1992. This one though was The Sweetest Thing…
