Hartson was “a little surprised” with Gerrard after handshake ‘slap’

John Hartson has revealed he was “a little surprised” by the way in which Steven Gerrard shook Neil Lennon and John Kennedy’s hands after the full-time whistle on Sunday.

The Rangers boss guided his side to their first win at Celtic in nine years and was jubilant after the referee blew for full-time.

And while Hartson fully understands why Gerrard celebrated in the manner he did at Parkhead, the former Celtic striker told talkSPORT that he was “surprised” by how Gerrard shook Lennon and Kennedy’s hands, the Daily Record reports.

I thought the handshake was slightly wrong. I thought he slapped Neil’s hand and he slapped John Kennedy’s hand. I thought Stevie would have shook hands, man to man, looked them in the eye.

But it was almost like a high-five, a slap and he walked away. It’s not a criticism, he was obviously delighted to get the three points and his team played very well. That was the only thing that I was a little surprised about that he didn’t shake the guys’ hands. 

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Much has been made of the way in which Gerrard celebrated at full-time following the win.

Hartson’s former teammate Chris Sutton labelled the Rangers boss as embarrassing for his post-match reactions, and while Hartson has not gone to such extremes, he is perhaps trying to make something out of nothing here.

Ultimately Gerrard deserved to celebrate in the way he did after completely nullifying Celtic on Sunday, and many supporters would have wanted Neil Lennon to do exactly the same had the Hoops come out on top.