Lennon looks for magic from Aiden McGeady

Neil Lennon has challenged Aiden McGeady to turn on the magic in tonight's final derby match of the season.

“I think that he's due a big performance against Rangers,” Lennon said after the midfielder had inspired Celtic to a 4-0 win over Motherwell on Saturday.

McGeady hasn't had much joy against Rangers over the last two years under Gordon Strachan and Tony Mowbray and was taunted by Nacho Novo on a video on the official Rangers website during the club's title celebrations.

Lennon understands the mindset of his former team-mate better than anyone and knows that an on-form McGeady can help deliver the win that will make his case to become permanent boss irresistible.

“I thought that Aiden was sloppy in the first half,” the caretaker boss admitted after the win over Motherwell. “But he was excellent in the second half.

“Maybe there was a wee bit of flatness about the occasion for him but I think that he'll be right up for it on Tuesday. I think that he's due a big performance against Rangers.

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"I want him to put in a big performance, not for me or for the fans, but for himself. He deserves a big performance. 

"That’s not throwing down the gauntlet, I just want to coax it out of him. It’s not that he’s not trying or anything like that. 

"The kid is a magnificent professional, he’s fantastic in training and wants to get better all the time. I just think he deserves a big performance to befit his talent.”

Lennon added: “We need to step it up on Tuesday, we need to tighten things up against a team of the quality of Rangers who can punish you.

“Each win has been a step in the right direction, the confidence in the squad is good and we have enough quality to give Rangers a good game.

“The players have to salvage something from the season, they have a good wee run going. They're in a positive frame of mind and are a lot more confident about themselves as a group and individually. They are looking forward to the game.”

Tonight's clash may be technically meaningless but with the manager's job at Celtic still vacant the game has an extra dimension for Lennon.

“Players are defined by it, managers are defined by it,” he admitted in reference to the game against Rangers with the caretaker manager playing a blinder against constant speculation about his prospects.

Lennon hasn't been shy to put himself forward for the job on a permanent basis but has stood back from making public demands of the Celtic board regarding the managers job.

Six SPL wins on the bounce has given his appointment momentum although the defeat to Ross County in the Scottish Cup stands out in the debit column.

Lennon will turn to Robbie Keane to shoot down Rangers with Saturday's extra-time goal against Motherwell taking the striker to the top of the Celtic scoring charts with 15 for the season.

Keane was kept on the bench for an hour on Saturday before helping to secure the win with three goals coming in the last 12 minutes following McGeady's opener.

As a player Lennon was never far from the action against Rangers with the two red cards of his Celtic career coming against the Ibrox side.

That same competitive attitude has been transferred into the dug-out with Lennon kicking every ball and contesting every decision from the side-lines.

Managing Celtic against Rangers with his job prospects on the line will be an incredible challenge for the former Celtic skipper who wears his heart on his sleeve in every match.

“Will I change? No, not at all,” Lennon admitted. “You have to be consistent and can't just change for one game.

"It is a bit unfair to say this match will decide if I get the job. I should be judged over the piece but I know this is probably a job interview.

“Old Firm games define your reputation because fans will always hark back to them. It will be my biggest game and it will be a cup final sort of atmosphere.

"For a lot of the players it will be their last game of the season - possibly their last for the club. So I'd like to think they will put on a show.”

McLeish can forget about Aiden McGeady 'swoop'

After months of publically attempting to 'tap' Aiden McGeady Alex McLeish can forget about any summer move for the Celtic midfielder- not that it was ever likely in the first place.

Selling McGeady may well be an option for the next Celtic manager to generate funds to reinvest in the team but McGeady won't be joining McLeish and Barry Ferguson for next season's relegation battle.

When Carsen Yeung finally took over at Birmingham in October there was talk of £20-£40m player budgets to help Birmigham reach 'the next level' after season's of bouncing between the top two divisions.

McLeish talked up the Premiership, the challenge that McGeady may require, and was about as subtle as a Doug Rougvie 50-50 in his attempts to entice the midfielder whilst undermining Celtic.

Only last month the Birmingham boss said: "He has got great potential, Aiden McGeady, to play in this league."

After all the talk of big money deals and a new era at St Andrews the reality is that McLeish will be given a summer budget that wouldn't buy him a better than average Premiership striker.

He admitted: "Will there be more than £10million to spend this summer? It won't be much more than that.

"We've got to be as prudent as ever and try and enhance the quality of the squad. We will try to get players (without spending too much) but you can't keep pulling rabbits out of the hat."

As ever with former Rangers managers the conversation quickly returned to matters at Ibrox.

McLeish added: "I heard Walter Smith talking about having a fantastic season at Rangers and then, because he's done well on a limited budget, they think they can take a bit more away and he can do it again.

"I worked like that at Rangers as well and you can't keep doing that. You can't keep pulling rabbits out of the hat. There has to be investment and I am sure the board will back me."

The truth about Birmingham's transfer budget has been followed up by the resignation of Chief Executive Michael Dunford.

The revelations about Portsmouth's financial problems has probably sent a shiver through the middle of the road Premiership clubs who think that spending on the never-never can short cut them to success.

Sky Sports £30m plus payments go straight through the clubs and into the bank accounts of players and agents as clubs try frantically to make ends meet and satisfy the demands of increasingly expectant supporters.

Clubs like Birmingham, Portsmouth, Bolton, Fulham, Blackburn and Wolves will never be in a position to go spending their way into the elite group of clubs challenging for a Champions League place.

Wishful stories about spending sprees buying up players like McGeady are never going to become reality at a club that averages 25,000 or less at the gate.

With cash tight again McLeish is likely to turn to Ibrox in the summer and add Kris Boyd, Nacho Novo and maybe Kirk Broadfoot to his old boys network of Barry Ferguson and Gregory Vignal.

McStay looks to 'veteran' McGeady to inspire

Willie McStay is looking to Old Firm 'veteran' Aiden McGeady to lead Celtic back into the SPL title race.

Amazingly, McGeady will be the most experienced player on the park tomorrow when Glasgow's big two collide, having first sampled the unique atmosphere as an 18-year-old in May 2004.

Rangers' storming form through December has opened up a seven-point lead over Tony Mowbray's inconsistent Celic side, with the prospect of a 10-point deficit unbearable for the Hoops' support.

On-form McGeady will carry the hopes of the home fans into the showdown, with McStay impressed by what he has witnessed recently from his former youth-team prodigy.

After quitting Celtic during the summer to take charge of Ujpest Dozsa, the former Sligo Rovers boss has been enjoying the winter break at home in Glasgow and catching up on all things Celtic.

He said: "It's surprising to think that Aiden will be the most experienced player in the team. Celtic need to ignite in this match and there's no better game than an Old Firm match to produce your best.

"I've been very impressed with what I've seen from Aiden over the last month, there has been an end product to his game and he's hurting teams.

"No one has ever doubted his ability but he's scored a few goals this season and has had a lot of assists recently as well.

"With Celtic's match being postponed at Kilmarnock, Rangers have gone further ahead in the SPL but playing Rangers at home is always a must-win match for Celtic.

"They are at their best in situations like this, Rangers allow teams to come at them so it will be an interesting match.

"It will take some individual brilliance to win the points and someone like Aiden can swing it Celtic's way.

"I think that he has regained his confidence this season, he knows how he can influence a game and is using that for the team.

"I've mainly been watching Celtic on television this season and his workrate has been high. Seeing Aiden in the flesh again he looks to be back towards his best.

"He's playing with freedom, he's scored a few goals and recently he has provided a lot of assists. The final product is definitely hurting the opposition."

McStay added: "No one has ever doubted Aiden's ability but he's needed an end product to his play and that's coming; the whole team is benefiting.

"Two seasons ago when he was voted Players' Player of the Year he was absolutely magnificent, he could change a game. I've watched him and worked with him since he was a kid but I'd happily pay money to watch him in that sort of form.

"There are other very talented players in Scotland but Aiden has the unexpected about him, he's one of the players that determines games.

"It's important that he is contributing to victories, working hard on every part of his game and is exciting for supporters to watch. He's looking like he's back at his best."

McStay was in charge of Celtic's youth development as McGeady was nursed through the club to make a scoring debut away to Hearts as a 17-year-old.

At that age McGeady expected to be a regular in Martin O'Neill's all-conquering side at the tail-end of Henrik Larsson's career, rubbing shoulders with Chris Sutton, John Hartson, Stilian Petrov, Neil Lennon and others.

He had to wait until Gordon Strachan's second season in charge of Celtic to become a first-team regular but that relationship was always strained and confrontational.

Twelve months ago McGeady spent the New Year at home serving a two-week ban after a dressing room bust-up with Strachan.

Evening Herald interview
That relationship was unconvincingly patched up but the arrival of Tony Mowbray has given the 23-year-old's Celtic career a fresh lift.

McStay added: "Looking back, the incidents with Gordon Strachan has only made Aiden stronger.

"The rights and wrongs are for other people to discuss, but when you bounce back from something like that to produce the sort of form that he's on just now, you have to admire his strength of character. Aiden has always had a streak in him, I had to punish him at times while trying to shape him into a player that can be a top professional.

"He's came through his problems with Gordon, a player with lesser self-belief and less character might not have survived that."

McStay will enjoy tomorrow's match before returning to Budapest to plan Ujpest's title challenge in the second half of the campaign.

He happily admits to "having the bug again" for management after ending his spell in charge of Sligo to take up the youth team job at Celtic in 1994. Retaining his extensive Irish contacts he had Seamus Coleman over on trial at Celtic a year ago before Everton moved in to snap up the full-back.

Tomorrow he'll resume his role as a lifelong Celtic fan, hoping that Aiden McGeady can play a decisive role in restoring Celtic's title challenge.


Evening Herald interview

The smile is back at Celtic?

The smile and enjoyment came back to Celtic Park this afternoon, it's been a while since the supporters have enjoyed themselves so much, perhaps the recent trials and disappointments added to todays pleasure.

There was more than just the magic of Aiden McGeady about the performance with the 3-0 scoreline against 10 man Aberdeen not doing the team justice.

A flicker of confidence ran through the side, when Landry N'Guemo crashed through three challenges to smack his shot off the woodwork there was a special sense of excitement around the stadium.

Against St Mirren and Hapoel there had been flickers of style but they had quickly died out replaced by fear and trepidation- today, without getting carried away there were sustained spells of good pressing passing football that had the Aberdeen defence in trouble.

JUGULAR

Tippy-tappy football, passing and possession away from the last third of the park may be pleasing on the eye and excite neutrals but when a team is going for the jugular as Celtic did today the football carries an edge.

Almost every outfield player had a chance to score, both strikers found the net and almost as importantly the defence kept a clean sheet with Artur Boruc given a quiet return to first-team action.

Both full-backs had chances at goal, Danny Fox with a Roy Aiteken like first half charge and shot that was well saved then a late Sebo like effort from Abdreas Hinkel.

My only criticism was that they all seemed to want to take a touch on the ball before shooting, no-one was prepared or interested in doing things first time.

The goals were pretty special, the first being a brilliant probing pass from Marc Crosas that found Hinkel acting like a right winger with Scott McDonald burying the German's pass across goal in the 38th minute.

ARCHITECT

Six minutes into the second half McGeady was the architect with a perfectly flighted cross onto the head of Samaras that was bulleted past Jamie Langfield from eight yards out.

Aberdeen were losing their discipline with Jerel Iilfel perhaps a little unfortunate to be red-carded for a follow-through on Samaras that caught the linesman's attention, most players like to inflict some damage once a free-kick has been given, Iifel's follow through on Samaras was a bit too enthusiastic.

World Cup bound Samaras completed the scoring in the 75th minute when he finally put the ball in the net from another McGeady pass although a simple first time lob looked easier with Langfield stranded.

Predictably Tony Mowbray wasn't getting carried away by the win, he's been through a lot recently and wasn't going to start shouting the odds about his team's performance.

PERFORMANCE

He said: "At Celtic Park, we've got to be confident, and generally we are. Even through the periods where the results weren't going, that's why I say regardless of dropping points, the performance of the team was very high.

"We tried to control the game from the off, and generally did that - but Aberdeen made it hard for us, starting with five at the back.

"But we managed to get he breakthrough and got there in the end. Aberdeen have some very young and talented players, but we managed to get on top of them, which is important because they have a lot of legs and enthusiasm.

"Thankfully for us, we managed to use the quality we've got to keep the ball off them for long spells."

With Motherwell and Hearts to be faced away in the next fortnight no-one at Celtic will be crowing about turning corners just yet.

However, after the dejection of throwing away three points to Dundee United the team has shown some character and style to bounce back with three wins, keeping that run going as long as possible will only add to the players confidence.

Team: Boruc, Hinkel, Caldwell, Loovens, Fox; Robson, N'Guemo, Crosas, McGeady (McGinn); Samaras (Zhi) McDonald (Fortune)

Celtic 3-1 St Mirren: A step in the right direction?

After the misery of the post-Tannadice week it was a great bonus to go into today's match on the back of Rangers losing to ten man Aberdeen.

The Celtic performance was again patchy but did have it's highlights, which mainly centred around the contribution of Aiden McGeady.

Playing on the right this week McGeady never shied away from the ball although he was hardly swamped with options when he won possession.

The third goal was scored by Scott McDonald but was made by McGeady's driving run down the right and forceful cross which was met perfectly by McDonald to shake off any notions of a St Mirren comeback.

McDonald should have made it four with a late penalty but didn't seem too downbeat afterwards as he discussed the match although missing a penalty did take the shine off his day.

Talk of rifts, fall-outs and a lack of unity behind the scenes seemed unlikely as McDonald openly discussed the match and the current form of both Celtic and Rangers.

Drinking from the half-full glass he was relieved that despite the troubled start to the season Celtic were sitting at the top of the table.

The striker said: "Consistency is the key in this league. There is none of that going on.

"Ourselves and Rangers keeping giving each other a lifeline. It's us one week and them the next. One club is in turmoil one week and then it is the other.

"If we had had a good run in the league then by now we would be away from the rest."

Building on today's win and putting together a consistent winning run is the target now for Celtic if they are to progress, take control in the title race and help to build confidence amongst players who have taken a verbal and on-line kicking in recent months.

The first half hour was nervy and a patchy showing from a team short on confidence in front of supporters understandably short on patience.

There were periods when the discontent from the stands could be felt as passes went astray and players aimlessly passed the ball around the back without any real purpose or intent.

Two great moves in the period before half-time allowed McDonald, assisted by Chris Innes, and Georgios Samaras to put Celtic ahead but the relief of those goals was almost wiped out by a goal from Michael Higdon which wouldn't have done much for the half time team-talk.

Celtic started the second-half confidently with the third goal giving them some breathing space and allowing Marco Fortune to come off the bench for Samaras.

Some of the football played was impressive, McGeady and Andreas Hinkel linked well down the right, while McDonald worked hard without any luck and Fortune looked lively and keen to get involved.

The £2.5-3.8m striker did have his chances but failed to find the net with two decent chances, one skied over the bar and the other an angled shot that flew across goal and wide of the post.

Danny Fox had a great shot blocked by St Mirren 'keeper Paul Gallacher who then blocked a poor McDonald penalty and the rebound to keep the score respectable.

There will be a feeling of relief amongst the players about today's win, coupled with Rangers defeat it should give the whole club an easier time of it in the week ahead.

Beating Hapoel Tel Aviv on Wednesday is unlikely to retain the teams interest in the Europa League but it will bring a little bit of momentum which hopefully can be carried into the Aberdeen match next Saturday.

McDonald's post-match demeanour would suggest that behind the scenes things aren't anywhere near as troubled as some folk would suggest.

Two more wins over the next week and we might start looking forward to the matches again and go into the away games at Motherwell and Hearts with some confidence.

Killen and N'Guemo on course for South Africa

Chris Killen and Landry N'Guemo took major steps towards the South African World Cup finals yesterday whilst Aiden McGeady faces the play-off lottery next month after Ireland's draw with Italy.

New Zealand drew 0-0 away to Bahrain in the first leg of their play-off leaving Killen's side requiring a win at home in Wellington on November 14 to qualify for their first World Cup since 1982.

Things look even brighter for N'Guemo even if details of Paul le Guen's side are thin on the ground after Cameroon beat Togo 3-0 at home, a win away to bottom placed Morocco on Wednesday will see Cameroon qualify for South Africa.

Celtic's Landry was the only N'Guemo named in the original squad but according to the FIFA website Joel N'Guemo was replaced by in the 69th minute

Led by Inter Milan's Samuel Eto'o World Cup regulars Cameroon eased ahead of Togo into top place in Group , who included Emmanuel Adabayor, Cameroon are virtually a Premiership select and will be expected to do well if they get through Wednesday's final qualifying match.

Information on New Zealand is a bit easier to come across with the FIFA site carrying some details of the goal-less draw in Bahrain.

With his international career on a high hopefully Killen will get a chance now at Celtic to recapture the form that he showed at Hibs where he was more than a match for SPL defenders.

PARTIZAN

Over in Dublin it was agony for Ireland with a 'Partizan-type' moment as Ireland snatched a draw from the jaws of victory against Italy.

McGeady had a varied performance, Italian defences are the hardest to break down but the Celtic midfielder didn't go into hiding and constantly took the ball to right-back Gianluca Zamborata.

Liam Lawrence on the right provided a steadier defensive influence to the midfield, McGeady's final ball was at times disappointing but out smarting Italian defenders with the scent of the World Cup finals in the air is no easy task.

In the second half McGeady was given greater scope to attack but again found it difficult to deliver the killer pass before he was replaced by Stephen Hunt in the 78th minute.

Hunt won the 87th minute free-kick that allowed Sean St Ledger to head Ireland into the lead but the Italians equalised in stoppage time through substitute Alberto Gilardino.

Irish boss Giovanni Trapattoni must have been devastated by his side's play after taking the late lead, instead of keeping possession and killing the clock Ireland continued to push forward leaving their defence open to the counter attack which Gilardino ruthlessly punished.

Unlike Celtic's ko blow in the 5-4 win over Partizan Belgrade 20 years ago Ireland get another chance with a play-off looming against France, Portugal, Greece or Russia.

It'll be tough to get through that stage especially after sharing four draws with Bulgaria and Italy in their qualifying group but with Trapattoni in charge they have the knowledge and experience to negotiate that obstacle

Tony Mowbray's striking options

Tony Mowbray's team line-up for tonight's game with Hapoel will be eagerly anticipated with the striking decisions of most interest.

Since losing Marc-Antoine Fortune to injury there has been a disjointed look about Celtic's play following the free flowing football of the opening games of the season sandwiched around the impressive win away to Dynamo Moscow.

The Scott McDonald-Georgios Samaras 'partnership' looks uncomfortable to be kind, with Chris Killen, despite his goalscoring pre-season form, still down the pecking order and almost out the door during the transfer window.

McDonald has the best scoring record, over the piece as well as in big games, but would probably admit himself that being the sole striker isn't playing to his strengths.

OPTION

Into the mix comes the Aiden McGeady or Shaun Maloney option. McGeady playing off Maloney caused Rangers plenty of grief in the Co-Operative Cup Final in March but for reasons best known to others was never tried again.

Playing either McGeady or Maloney alongside McDonald will be much more appealing to Mowbray after the performance of Niall McGinn against Dundee United.

The former Derry City winger was transformed from being a mystery to an option over the 81 minutes that he played against Dundee United. With his turn of pace McGinn could be a very useful European option out wide allowing McGeady and/or Maloney to link up behind McDonald.

Getting the balance right is all important with Fortune being out of action for at least a month as Mowbray puts his side together.

SPINE

There are questions being asked all over the team with the spine still far from decided, Stephen McManus is available again for central defence with the midfield looking very weak against Dundee United when Scott Brown was pushed forward.

Hopefully tonight's game will be as illuminating as the Moscow performance and not an Arsenal like damp squib, with two home games coming up in the Europa League an away win for starters would make qualification less daunting.

Today's Evening Herald

Aiden McGeady's Tommy Burns tribute

Celtic View editor Pail Cuddihy has written an account of the life and times of Tommy Burns titled: Tommy Burns: A Supporter Who Got Lucky.

The book will be serialised in The Sun this week with the foreword from Aiden McGeady printed below

"EVERY day, when we come in to training at Lennoxtown, the first things you see are pictures of Tommy Burns on the walls outside the dressing room.

It's nice to be reminded of him all the time although there's no chance any of us will ever forget him.

The pictures are of him smiling, which are really appropriate because he was a happy guy in general.

SCHOOL

When I was about 15, Celtic wanted me to sign for them and Tommy came out to my house with Martin O'Neill who was manager at the time, and it was strange to be sitting in my living room, thinking I've got school the next day and the Celtic manager was sitting there asking me to sign for the club.

That meant a lot, as did the fact Tommy was there and he obviously thought so much of me that he wanted to bring the manager out to meet me.

Tommy was always there as I progressed through the ranks at Celtic, and he was always encouraging me, offering advice, wanting me to work hard and improve my game, and that was the way he was in general, not just with me, but with everyone else.

MAGNET

He seemed to be a magnet for all the younger players. Because he was in charge of the Youth Development set-up, he'd see all these young boys coming through and being so close the first team without really becoming a regular in the side.

And he just wanted everybody to give it their best shot. He knew the players had something and he just wanted to add to it and, to be fair, he was the man to bring out the best in everybody.

Then, when he became first-team coach in 2005, that was great for all of us who had come through the Academy at Celtic because we knew him and he knew us, knew what we were capable of and also what we still needed to do to become regular first-team players.

The two of us became sort of best friends - he was obviously still the coach and I had respect for that - but he'd always give me a bit of advice as we were going back into the dressing room after the warm-up.

He'd say: "This is a big game for us today. You know you can make the difference. I want you to get the ball and I want you to go at someone, just go at the full back."

CONFIDENCE

It was just to give you a little confidence booster, though sometimes before games he would say something to spur you on a bit, maybe something not so pleasant. I remember at the start of the 2006/07 season, we were playing Kilmarnock at home in the opening day of the season and the day before the game they'd read the team out.

We were doing set-pieces and Tommy was standing with me and he asked me what age I was now - I was 19. And he said: "You should be going and running this league - you on your own.

You should go out tomorrow and show everybody what a good player you are. You should go out and score two or three goals, or set up two or three" - something like that.

He said I was at the age where I really should be running games and he wanted to see that tomorrow. He said: "You've done all this coming on and playing well and playing the odd game here and there but you need to have consistency."

And to be fair, I went out and played quite well. It was just something that stuck in my head, although I remember at the time thinking I'd been doing alright recently, but then you actually analyse it and you realise he's probably right.

PUSHING

I was at that age where I should be pushing on and being a regular in the first team every single week. So it was just something along those lines that he was trying to get into my head.

It was never more evident than in the season when he died. That season he worked closely with me. He used to look at every aspect of my game and go through it with me.

After every game he'd point out things I did well or things I could have done better, and then we'd work at them on the training ground. I'd be working with him every single day, practising crosses, finishing, working on speed.

And he'd always be the one who'd say that if these little things make one or two per cent difference to you, you're as well doing them.

PHILOSOPHY

That was his philosophy and I still try and benefit from everything he taught me.

It was also during that season that he got really ill. I knew things weren't right for a while but I just always thought he would pull through. When you hear of cancer returning for a second or third time then it's never good but I never really believed he would actually die.

Tommy was always a fun-loving guy and a funny guy - all the players have a million and one stories about him - and he didn't even mind too much when the likes of me or Jim O'Brien would do impressions of him and the one-liners he'd shout at us during training.

But he was also a great coach and someone who helped many of us in our careers.

LEGACY

He's the one who brought us through and worked closely with us, and I think it's a good legacy that there are players in the Celtic first team now who owe it all to Tommy. Even the younger boys pushing to come through.

He was an incredible individual and had an impact on everyone he met because he had this infectious personality. So many will associate Tommy with Celtic, but he had a lot of friends from the other side of the city.

He always wanted us to beat Rangers - he was passionate about that - but he had a lot of close friends there as well.

When the Rangers team and supporters travelled back from the UEFA Cup Final, a lot of the buses stopped at Celtic Park to pay their respects to Tommy. He really was a one-off and his funeral united the city.

I remember being on the bus on the way to Linn Cemetery and thousands were lining the streets. Naturally, the majority were Celtic supporters but there were fans of every team, and people from every walk of life.

So many people knew Tommy, so many loved him. I don't know if anyone else could unite the city like he did.

Mowbray demands more 'we can play miles better'

Smiles were back on the faces of the Celtic support after the 3-1 win over Aberdeen today but new manager Tony Mowbray is demanding more from his team.

A 3-0 half-time lead on the opening day of the season would have most bosses in a happy mood but perhaps highlighting his determination to be a winner Mowbray cast a critical eye over his team's finishing rather than praise the quality of their play.

A double from Aiden McGeady and a typical Scott McDonald strike secured the points for Celtic on the opening day but not the complete approval of their manager.

Mowbray said: "There was some good and some bad in our performance. I was frustrated at half-time that we didn't have a greater advantage, a truer reflection might have been one or two more goals.

"We had some great opportunities, got into great goalscoring areas but we didn't take our chances. I didn't have a blast at the strikers at half-time but I tried to gee them up a bit.

HAUNT

"At Cardiff in pre-season we failed to put our chances away, those days could come back to haunt you if you keep missing chances or getting into great areas and not scoring. I'm not 100% happy but obviously delighted to get a win away from home.

"We played miles better in both games against Moscow Dynamo. The shape of the team and the way that we moved the ball about was better in those games.

"There's lots for us to work on. I told the players that we'll have to be miles better on Tuesday against Arsenal, we'll be asked a lot more questions in that game."

Goalscorers McGeady and McDonald, who played against each other in midweek when Australia beat Ireland 3-0 in Limerick, were in agreement with their managers judgement of the game.

McGeady said: "The manager was disappointed that we never scored more goals in the first half, the boys felt the same.

CHANCES

"We did have a lot of chances, we put a few away but it could have been five or six. You want to win every game by as many goals as you can.

"A few of us were disappointed with the way that the second half went, if Aberdeen had got a goal it could have got quite nervy for us."

McDonald added: "It's good as a striker to get a goal but I would have liked a couple more, I could have scored one right at the start of the game.

"We probably should have got five or six in the first half. That's something that we'll have to get about our game very quickly and be lethal, especially on Tuesday night.

ARSENAL

"If we get one chance against Arsenal we have to take it. We believe that we can do the business against Arsenal, we've got them at home first and Celtic Park is a fortress for us."

It could have been much worse for Aberdeen manager Mark McGhee who has watched his side lose all three games since he took over at the club.

McGhee said: "I'm not going to get too upset with this, Celtic are a good team, they played well in the first half when their movement was too much for us. We lost the game to a good team."

Celtic finished the match with ten men but Mowbray has no worries over an injury to Shaun Maloney. The former Aston Villa midfielder looked to have picked up a bad knee injury but Mowbray revealed that it was just a spot of cramp.

AUDIO INTERVIEW WITH MALKY MACKAY

Celtic turning on the style

By Joe McHugh

The emotions of being a Celtic fan were highlighted brilliantly at Wembley yesterday as Tony Mowbray's side gave the sort of performance that we've been waiting months/years to see.

Without kicking off a Mowbray-Strachan debate yesterday's 5-0 hammering of Egyptian side Al Ahly was basically achieved by the same players that couldn't score against Hibs or Hearts to hand cash-strapped Rangers the SPL title.

The despair of last season as we staggered from game to game without any confidence or pattern and regularly without goals was blown away as a team containing Lee Naylor and Massimo Donati demonstrated that they are certainly capable of better than they have shown over the last two seasons.

Only Marc-Antoine Fortune and Landry N'Guemo had been added to last season's side while Shunsuke Nakamura, Paul Hartley and Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink have moved on.

The actual players didn't seem so important yesterday, the most impressive feature was the movement, energy and confidence of players who had been running on empty last season and appeared demoralised at times.

Aiden McGeady and Shaun Maloney were the key players in the revamp.

Notionally given wide roles both players had licence to move inside, looking for the ball and creating chances as well as causing problems for defenders whilst opening up spaces for full-backs to explore.

Strachan's wide men were exactly that, wide players, fed the ball on the flank then expected to be creative with two markers in close pursuit.

That system did bring some success and had it's merits but there was always the feeling that we weren't getting the best out of Nakamura and McGeady while others also suffered in a team over reliant on two players.

With McGeady and Maloney happy to cut inside to link up with strikers Scott McDonald and Fortune there was openings for N'Guemo and Donati to exploit with full-backs Naylor and Andreas Hinkel both happy to exploit the space created.

Despite all the attacking options it was impossible to look beyond the contribution of Artur Boruc who although hardly in perfect shape demonstrated that natural instinct to pull off saves that ordinary 'keepers don't get near.

Holding back the optimism won't be easy, at least until the next match, but there was enough on show at Wembley to suggest that we might have a team making progress again and there's a good case for arguing that since the Champions League ties with AC Milan in 2007 the team hadn't been developing.

A win over Spurs to claim the Wembley Cup would be great, and hopefully an invite back for next season's event, but the only games that matter are those against Moscow Dynamo over the next ten days.

Ousting the Russians from the Champions League will be a major achievement and give the squad a much needed confidence boost for the season ahead.

The glasses are all half-full at the moment with hope and promise in the air, if these strange emotions continue then going to watch Celtic could suddenly become enjoyable again!