Chris Sutton 'loved' Hearts pair's Celtic taunts as he picks moment of the weekend
Lawrence Shankland and Craig Halkett have been getting it in the neck from Celtic fans over their failed attempts to put off Arne Engels as he stepped up to take his penalty.
But there is one person of a Hoops persuasion who admits he loved seeing the gamesmanship from the Hearts duo. Engels had already had the delay of a VAR check for James Penrice's handball and then the added pressure of captain Callum McGregor taking the ball off regular taker Reo Hatate to give to him.
On top of that, he then had Shankland and Halkett in his ear and the former shouted "Big pressure, big pressure", and the latter added: £10million? Aye right." The centre half was referencing to record fee splashed out by Celtic (actually £11m plus add-ons) but it wasn't enough to put the Belgian midfielder off as he stroked home to open the scoring.
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It was clearly just a bit of sledging from the pair as the aimed to put their opponent off his stride but that hasn't stopped Celts fans from poking fun at them on social media since. But Sutton, a wind-up merchant himself, admits it's a side of the game he loves to see.
Speaking on his 'It's All Kicking Off' podcast, he said: "My moment of the weekend. Celtic won at the weekend and their first goal scorer was Arne Engels from the penalty spot. I love the sort of pettiness over in football.
"Engels - the big new signing for Celtic for £10million. As he is getting ready to take the penalty Shankland is screaming at Engels '£10million, £10m, big pressure, high right (sic) and all that'. Engels just strolls up and sends Craig Gordon the wrong way. Fair play to him. I wonder if he understood Scottish first and foremost. I sort of quite like what Lawrence Shankland was doing anyway. But it didn't phase Engels at all."