The Brendan Rodgers era is up and running for Celtic Football Club. Sort of.
Appointed in late May as their new manager, the former Liverpool boss took his new team to Gibraltar for the first leg of their Champions League qualifier with the magnificently-named part-timers, Lincoln Red Imps.
As much as we’d love to say something like ‘an away match in Gibraltar was never going to be easy,’ the truth is, even though Celtic haven’t had much of a preseason yet, nobody really expected anything other than a straightforward evening for the Scottish champions.
So, having failed to score in the first 45 minutes against the 22-time Gibraltan champions, guess what happened just after the break?
48' Goal for Lincoln. A long ball over the Celtic defence is flicked over Ambrose's head and Casciaro finds the back of the net.
— Celtic Football Club (@CelticFC) July 12, 2016
You guessed it. Celtic fell behind.
As word of Lincoln’s opener spread, there was very little sympathy for the new man at the Celtic helm.
Totally forgot tactical mastermind Brendan Rodgers is managing Celtic who are losing to some part-timers from Gibraltar haha
— SP (@Sunil_YG30) July 12, 2016
Brendan Rodgers, the gift that just keeps on giving. Awful manager.
— Zeeshan Masih (@MrZeeshanMasih) July 12, 2016
Brendan Rodgers football genius 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
— Darren Webb (@United_Webby) July 12, 2016
Brendan Rodgers is, and will always be a complete clown
— Ben Print 💙 (@PrintyBen) July 12, 2016
https://twitter.com/R_Barnes88/status/752948216044347392
I wonder how much 'character' Brendan Rodgers thinks this celtic team has. Shocking!!!
— Sean Flood (@floody_s) July 12, 2016
There were even some whispers that his time in charge of the club might be over after just one competitive match…
Could Brendan Rodgers survive Celtic's most embarrassing defeat ever? 🙂
— Garve Scott-Lodge (@G4rve) July 12, 2016
Even the locals were taking the piss out of him…
https://twitter.com/jamesablack/status/752946724231086081
Thankfully, there was still plenty of time for Celtic to get themselves back on level terms. There was no chance they were going to *lose* the game, was there? Was there?
Erm…
https://twitter.com/Arron1967/status/752953322848522244
Chin up Brendan, things really can only get better. Although with a second leg still to come, perhaps that statement is a bit premature.