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Sunday Papers; 30/12/08
Topic Started: Nov 30 2008, 12:21 AM (82 Views)
Jinty
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The Independent


Celtic on target after Maloney golden shot - Celtic 1 Inverness CT 0

By Phil Gordon at Celtic Park

Shaun Maloney restored Celtic's equilibrium with a goal that banished the Champions' League hangover caused by the midweek defeat at Aalborg and put daylight between them and Rangers in the title race.

The midfielder's fine first-half finish produced a 12th successive victory in the Scottish Premier League for Gordon Strachan's side, and widened the gap over their Old Firm rivals to seven points. If Celtic produced their poorest display of the season that mattered little. Strachan was able to bask in the best winning sequence of his three-and-a-half year tenure and must believe he can deliver a fourth title in a row.

Inverness contributed to a fiercely contested first half with the crisp passing that is the trademark of Craig Brewster's team and ought to have profited from a fine move in the fifth minute when Ian Black and Don Cowie cut the hosts wide open but Stephen McManus's slide snuffed out the threat.

Celtic were reliant on Andreas Hinkel to stretch the visitors and the German right-back almost broke the deadlock in the 22nd minute, bursting into the box but firing wide.

Seven minutes later Celtic went in front with a goal of true quality. Paul Hartley's tackle won possession midway in the Inverness half, he gave the ball to Shunsuke Nakamura who produced a wonderful reverse pass to Maloney who controlled the pass with his chest and spun to thrash a low right foot shot beyond goalkeeper Ryan Esson.

Georgios Samaras looked rusty after his long lay off but would have scored before half time had it not been for Grant Munro's valuable clearance from Barry Robson's cross.

Samaras was also unable to finish off a great Maloney run early in the second half and was replaced soon after by Cillian Sheridan.

When Celtic sliced chances high and wide, notably from Scott McDonald and Paul Hartley, you could see the champions settling for what they had and they edged over the finishing line without any real scare.

Strachan reflected: "To produce 12 wins in a row, shows the players can deal not only with disappointments in Europe, but also being without so many of their colleagues who are injured."




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Sunday Herald


Season's greetings


CELTIC: Shaun Maloney isn’t having all the hysteria following the European exit – but there are questions to be asked, says Stewart Fisher

REPORTS OF Scottish football's demise have been greatly exaggerated, according to Shaun Maloney. The Parkhead side's last-gasp defeat in Aalborg on Tuesday night, which saw them miss out on even a Uefa Cup place from Group E, has been latched upon in some quarters as cast-iron evidence of a malaise in the national game - marking as it did the 13th winless European match contested by our representatives this season.

Appearances, however, can be deceptive. Shaun Maloney for one is not a subscriber to the view that Celtic are a club in crisis following their European exit. Indeed, he has been impressed by the quality of the side he has slotted back into since returning from his brief sojourn at Aston Villa, the club he left Celtic Park for back in January 2007.

"I think the Celtic team now is a lot stronger than it was when I left," Maloney said. "I don't think there should be a major analysis, it's been a bad result, but I personally think it's a better Celtic in terms of the technical standard of player and the fitness of the players. It's just my opinion. And the league form has been pretty good with some big players out.

"I can't sit here and criticise the state of Scottish football because I don't think it is time to go completely overboard about it. I don't think this is worse than Artmedia. In fact it definitely isn't," Maloney added.

Not that the critics out there have any shortage of ammunition at their fingertips. The current campaign is on target to be Scotland's worst in Europe for 53 years, with the country lying 32nd out of Europe's 53 nations - behind the likes of Lithuania, Belarus and the Republic of Ireland - in terms of results gained in European competition. The feel-bad factor is hardly helped much by the travails of the national team.

It is little wonder then that the players being lambasted this week are inclined to take it all with a pinch of salt. Rewind 12, or even nine months, and many of the same personnel were being lauded for a season which ended with Rangers making it into the Uefa Cup final, and Celtic beating AC Milan, Shakhtar Donetsk and Benfica en route to the last 16. Enough co-efficient points are already in the bank to ensure that this season's SPL champions go directly into the group stages of the Champions League, and at worst the two wildly conflicting seasons are likely to cancel each other out.

Although the continuation of Celtic's 18-game winless run away from home in the Champions League for another season was a depressing outcome, Villarreal and Aalborg were actually two of the more assured away performances in the club's recent European history. So, rather than fretting over our standing in the worldwide game, in retrospect there may be more pertinent questions to ask than simply what's gone wrong with Scottish football?

For instance, would Maloney or Paul Hartley have been more successful substitutes than striker Cillian Sheridan - who came on for the tiring Georgios Samaras on Tuesday night - considering there was a lead to be preserved? Did Celtic get carried away and allow the game to get too stretched in the last 20 minutes of the match when a more prudent tactic may have borne fruit? Or did that away record became a millstone around the players' necks once Aalborg were given an unlikely lifeline?

As it happens, Maloney's contribution was limited to his 89th-minute arrival from the substitutes' bench in a frantic, fruitless quest to salvage an equaliser, but there was little doubting he felt as ashamed by the result as anyone. The players clearly expected to beat Aalborg as much as the fans.

"You don't want to be too disrespectful to Aalborg," Maloney said, "because the bottom line is we didn't beat them over two games, but it's been a poor performance from us in the Champions League this year in terms of results. We should have prevailed. We think we should have finished ahead of Aalborg, but we didn't do it. We're going to get criticised for that, but it's happened. All we can do is try to win the league and hope we get another crack at it next year and perform better."

Maloney certainly isn't aware of any in-built psychological flaw or mental frailty which flares up particularly on those away nights.

"I don't think that collectively when we lost a goal it was a panic, I think it was just that the momentum changed," he said. "I wouldn't say it is a psychological thing, but obviously with the away record we have there must be a reason for it. At the moment I just can't put my finger on what it is."

Another altogether more pleasant statistic, the 11-game winning league run with which they entered the weekend, equalling the best the club have had since the arrival of Gordon Strachan, suggests all is not lost, but if there were no cracked club crests in evidence the club certainly appeared crestfallen this week.

"It wasn't a great flight back straight after the game," Maloney said. "You could see the disappointment all over the manager. But we've just got to get over it now. The manager has not said much since. We knew in his face how disappointed he was, it didn't need him to rant and rave to put his point across."

Much as it did for their rivals Rangers after their trauma against Kaunas, the all-consuming quest for the domestic title should help fill the vacuum a little. "There is always that intensity, there is just that massive pressure to win the league," Maloney said. "If we don't win it then Rangers are going to win it, and it is a crisis at our place, so we have got that pressure to win the league again."

There is also one remaining Champions League match to come, at home against the already qualified Villarreal. For the sake of the co-efficient at least, it is to be hoped that Celtic take some of their frustrations out on them.

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Sunday Herald


Unmemorable day on road to forgetting

CELTIC 1 - 0 INVERNESS CT
Phil Gordon at Celtic Park

WHAT WOULD Gordon Strachan have given for this outcome on Tuesday night? Celtic got their 12th successive victory in the Scottish Premier League yesterday on an occasion when the statistics easily outshone the football.

Few inside a freezing Celtic Park, including the manager, will bother to recall this match with much fondness but if it contributes to a fourth title celebration of Strachan's reign under warm May sun, it will have served its purpose.

Shaun Maloney's first-half goal allowed Celtic to cast off the pain of that Champions League defeat in Denmark four days earlier. It also gave the manager his best sequence of league victories since arriving here in 2005, but, more importantly, stretched the gap between the champions and Rangers to seven points, following their rivals' defeat at Tynecastle earlier in the day.

Clear green water? Only time will tell. However, what is certain is the way Strachan's team have responded since losing at home to Rangers at the end of August. A perfect 12.

Celtic maintained their remarkable record of winning on the domestic stage after every Champions League game this season: that is five out of five.

None of this will make up for the disappointment of seeing Aalborg put paid to their European campaign after reaching the last 16 of the Champions League in the previous two years. However, with only the title to focus on, Celtic will be hard to dislodge at the top.

The performance was probably Celtic's poorest of the season but, given the plethora of injuries to his squad, Strachan preferred to dwell on their resolve when asked to reflect on the current run. "It shows the players can deal with disappointments and a lot of injuries," the manager said. "In that run, we've also had to play Champions League and League Cup games, we have six players with the Scotland side and others away on international duty.

"We gave the ball away too much today, but physically and mentally, we were at 100%. It was a smashing goal from Shaun, but the longer we went without another, the crowd got more nervous and the players then got more nervous."

It was little surprise, post-Aalborg, that there were plenty of empty seats around Parkhead but Strachan was understanding. Credit crunch? The Celtic manager reckons that European dreams being crunched is closer to the mark. "It is hard for the supporters, emotionally,"

he said. "They have been on the same journey as us."

Celtic would not have chosen Inverness as the side to work off their midweek misery. Few opponents will ever haunt this club more, but Craig Brewster's side could not summon up a cutting edge to go with their crisp passing.

The Inverness manager set out to avoid a repeat of his team's previous trip to Glasgow, when they lost 5-0 at Ibrox after shipping three goals in the opening 18 minutes.

"That was a tough 45 minutes to endure and we told the players that we did not want to go through that again," said Brewster. "We had a lot of possession but we did not do enough to hurt Celtic."

In Ian Black and Dougie Imrie, they possessed two of the best players on view and ought to have profited from a fine move in the fifth minute when Black and Don Cowie cut the hosts wide open, but Stephen McManus's vigilant slide snuffed out the threat.

Celtic were reliant upon the advances of Andreas Hinkel to stretch the visitors and he almost broke the deadlock in the 22nd minute, bursting into the box but firing wide.

Eight minutes later, though, Celtic were in front through a goal of true quality. Paul Hartley won possession midway inside the Inverness half and he fed Shunsuke Nakamura, whose wonderful reverse pass allowed Maloney to spring the offside trap. The diminutive winger controlled on his chest and spun to thrash a low right foot shot beyond goalkeeper Ryan Esson.

Georgios Samaras looked rusty after a long lay off but would have scored before half time had it not been for Grant Munro's clearance from Barry Robson's cross.

Black came close to restoring parity with a fierce shot from outside the box in the 55th minute, while for Celtic Nakamura was in the mood but few of his colleagues were on the same wavelength. When Celtic sliced various chances high and wide, notably from Scott McDonald and Hartley, you could see them settling for what they had. Indeed Artur Boruc was booked for time wasting in the last minute. Celtic, though, won't be concerned by that. This was one day that was far from a waste of time.

Celtic substitutes: Naylor for Robson 62, Sheridan for Samaras 62, Mizuno for Sheridan 90 Not used: M Brown, Loovens, Caddis, Millar Booked: Boruc 90.
Inverness CT substitutes: Barrowman for Wood 62, Rooney for Vigurs 72, Wilson for Black 86 Not used: Fraser, McBain, Sutherland, Duff Booked: none

Referee: D Somers
Att: 55,117

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The Observer


Maloney's strike helps Celtic forget Euro blues

Nial Briggs

The gap between Celtic and Rangers at the top of the SPL was stretched to seven points by Celtic's 1-0 victory at home to Inverness Caley.

Gordon Strachan's side, who were knocked out of Europe after defeat at Aalborg in midweek, struggled in the early stages against the Highlanders, who matched the champions in most departments until Shaun Maloney put the leaders ahead after 29 minutes. A clever reverse pass by Shunsuke Nakamura allowed the Scotland international to beat the offside trap and have time to control the ball on his chest, turn and slam his shot from 14 yards past Ryan Esson, securing his team's 12th straight league win in a row.

Two goals from Jon Daly gave Dundee United a 2-0 win at Love Street. Andy Dorman had St Mirren's best opportunity of the half when he ran on to a Dennis Wyness through ball. The midfielder bore down on goal, but Michael Kovacevic came across to make a crucial sliding tackle. Saints found themselves behind two minutes later when Willo Flood stole the ball from Dorman in midfield before setting up Daly. The Irishman met Flood's right-wing cross powerfully from 10 yards out and Saints' goalkeeper Mark Howard could only help it into the top corner. Daly scored a penalty in the 89th minute after Craig Conway was upended.

A header from Hibernian substitute Colin Nish prevented Falkirk from celebrating 'Russell Latapy Day' with an SPL victory. The Bairns held the upper hand throughout and took the lead with a header from captain Darren Barr after 68 minutes. However, Nish levelled the scores at 1-1 with a header eight minutes from full-time after Rob Jones had out-jumped home keeper Scott Flinders to Alan O'Brien's corner.

Second-half strikes from Gary McDonald and Lee Miller gave Aberdeen a 2-0 victory against a lacklustre Motherwell in Jimmy Calderwood's 200th game in charge of the club. McDonald headed the Dons into the lead after 61 minutes with his second touch after replacing the injured Andrew Considine. The Dons then doubled their advantage four minutes later with a Miller penalty after Paul Quinn had been sent off for a challenge on Darren Mackie.

Hamilton Accies picked up their fourth win of the season and moved off the bottom of the SPL table with a 1-0 home win against Kilmarnock. Richard Offiong scored early in the second half, his third goal in three games. It was Killie who had looked the likelier scorers, but they were unable to find a way back after Offiong's ultimately decisive strike, substitute Donovan Simmonds squandering their best chance by firing well over from five yards out.
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Sunday Telegraph


Celtic secure seven-point lead at top over Glasgow Rangers

By Roddy Forsyth

With a performance that was by no means convincing, Celtic edged a crucial home win over Inverness Caley Thistle to take a commanding lead of seven points over Rangers — who were beaten 2-1 by Hearts at Tynecastle – at the top of the Scottish Premier League.

Ranks of empty seats testified to the Celtic fans’ dismay at their team’s exit from Europe following their midweek Champions League defeat in Aalborg.

With Glenn Loovens relegated to the bench and Mark Wilson absent, the Celtic manager, Gordon Strachan, gave starts to Paul Hartley and Shaun Maloney, with Barry Robson switched from midfield to left-back.

This turned out to be a weak spot which Caley Thistle exploited whenever Robson was drawn instinctively to his more familiar beat, but they squandered chances, notably when their best move of the game finished with Ian Black shovelling his attempt wildly over the target.

Maloney provided the decisive intervention on the half-hour when he timed his run immaculately to beat the Inverness offside trap, kill Shunsuke Nakamura’s pass on his chest and spin to shoot low beyond Ryan Esson.

That proved to be the only goal of the game and although the home fans were increasingly concerned as the contest wore on with the margin wafer-thin — and Artur Boruc was booked for time wasting — Celtic hung on for what may prove be one of their most important victories of the season.

Rangers’ woes stemmed from neglect of the most basic principles of defence at set-pieces. Twice within four minutes they allowed Christophe Berra — Hearts’ tallest player — to enjoy unopposed headers, in both cases supplied by Bruno Aguiar from free-kicks conceded in the first half.

For Hearts’ first, Berra’s knockdown was parried by Allan McGregor, but Marius Zaliukas pounced on the rebound to score from point-blank range as Majid Bougherra made a fruitless attempt to intervene. Rangers were still stunned by the opener when Hearts struck again, in almost identical fashion.

Bougherra was cautioned for a foul on Andy Driver on the flank and once more Aguiar delivered perfectly for Berra to head down across the goalmouth and once more McGregor got a glove to the ball, but Laryea Kingston — on his return after a long absence through injury — was first to react and head over the line.

Rangers badly needed to score the next goal, but although they did pull one back before the interval, it was Hearts who scored that, too, when Karipidis added to an eventful afternoon when his downward header cannoned off the crossbar and across the line.

However, Rangers could not wring any more reward from the game, even when Lee Wallace was sent off for successive fouls on Chris Burke, both of which prompted cautions, and in the 14 minutes that remained their efforts become as disjointed as they were frantic.

Csaba Laszlo, the Hearts manager, said that his players’ fifth win in succession was a fair return for the application they had put in at training.

He said: “I know at the moment it’s important to collect the points and if you can win against Rangers, especially at home, you must win and you must take the points. At the end of the season we’ll look at which position we are. But if you beat Rangers, you take only three points. If you beat Celtic, you take only three points.”

A disappointed Walter Smith said: “I don’t think Hearts had many attempts at goal or cutting us open but it was more of the set-play aspect that we didn’t handle and it cost us two goals.

“We proceeded to give away too many free-kicks in the first 20-25 minutes. After that, for the last hour, it was played entirely in Hearts’ half, but we weren’t good enough to create opportunities.

“These lapses have caused us problems as much as anything else.”
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The Scotsman


Celtic 1 - 0 Inverness: Maloney lifts Celtic out of the doldrums

By Andrew Smith at Celtic Park

Maloney 30

AS CELTIC supporters continue to lament their team's hideously needless European exit, events yesterday should offer consolation. For they indicate, all ends up, Gordon Strachan's side will be heading straight back into the Champions League next September as four-in-a-row title winners. In squeezing out the win to establish a seven-point lead over a Rangers side beaten earlier at Tynecastle, the champions are setting a pace that's burning up their rivals.

No matter that Celtic looked every inch a side still suffering over their self-inflicted agonies in Aalborg, and performed as poorly as they have at any point this season across an encounter best quickly forgotten. The grim nature of Celtic's 12th straight Scottish Premier League victory does not alter the fact that they are currently on their longest such winning run since 2003-04, are eight points better off than at the 16-game juncture last season, and currently untouchable on the home front.

Against Inverness they not only failed to set the heather on fire, they hardly produced enough of a spark to set alight a hay loft doused in kerosene. It was an afternoon in which the home players' body language told they were just desperate to see out the week without further mishap. Courtesy of a fine 30th minute Shaun Maloney strike, they did this, and nothing more besides.

There was a ponderous aspect to Celtic's efforts to prise openings from well-marshalled visitors. Inspiration has become increasingly difficult to come by for Strachan's men of late. Coupled with their Danish dumping, this has led to rumblings among the club's support that standards continue to wane. With the best part of 20,000 season ticket holders staying away, an interest in actively watching Celtic certainly seems to have waned among some followers.

Yet, there are holes in any casually negative assessment of the current Celtic side. To say nothing of the arrant nonsense spouted by a number of pundits about steady decline as the club have tightened their belts. And that is over and above league form that is their best in four years and a number of engaging displays across September and October.

Champions League success, or otherwise, is no great barometer when judging the worth of a side. If it told all then Rangers in Alex McLeish's final season of 2005-6, when he became the first Scottish manager to lead a team into the last 16 of the competition, would surely be lauded as one of the great Ibrox teams of recent years. Instead, with the club then finishing outside the top two for the only time in 22 years, it is regarded as one of the weakest.

Celtic are no weaker now than at any time during their three-in-a-row spell, as Maloney maintained without his nose being in danger of growing the other day. Mind you, aside from forcing running from Andreas Hinkel down the right flank, until Maloney popped up to break the deadlock, everything about Celtic's performance was from the sorry end of the Strachan collection.

Despite having the result from Gorgie to gorge on, events in Aalborg ensured the mood inside Celtic Park was unmistakably downbeat. In the opening exchanges so too was much of the play of the home side, who had Paul Hartley back which resulted in Gary Caldwell's restoration to central defence at Glen Loovens' expense.

The brio and conviction with which a containment-configured Inverness attacked their tasks suggested they genuinely considered Celtic feeling low and a points haul on their travels bettered only by the Old Firm could be a combination allowing them to emerge from Glasgow with tangible reward.

That belief would have been strengthened in the early minutes, when they constructed a move down the right that caused the sort of alarm in the Celtic backline that precipitated the costly Caldwell own goal in Aalborg. However, on this occasion, a cross into the left back area – patrolled by Barry Robson with Mark Wilson injured – was dealt with decisively, Stephen McManus sliding in to deny Don Cowie.

Yet, Celtic were sufficiently energised in the form of Hartley to make the difference. The midfielder won a bone-crunching challenge with Dougie Imrie on the half hour mark and slipped the ball to Shunsuke Nakamura. With a terrific lofted pass over the top he found Maloney, who had sprung the offside trap with a clever run. And after chesting the ball down he was fortunate to send a shinned-shot wide of Ryan Esson.

The Inverness keeper's counterpart Artur Boruc then had a wee dodgy moment that threatened to make the afternoon interesting a couple of minutes before the interval. He failed to collect a corner under pressure from David Proctor but the loose ball bobbled to safety. It was the last time Boruc was troubled, which made him little different from Esson.

Strachan wasn't oblivious to the laboured efforts of his team. In the 62nd minute he made a double substitution, removing the dreadfully out of touch Georgios Samaras and struggling auxiliary left-back Robson and replacing them with Cillian Sheridan and Lee Naylor. Maradona in his pomp would have struggled to lift yesterday's confrontation out of its torpor, however.

MAN OF THE MATCH

After missing the previous two games, Paul Hartley showed what Celtic could have done with in the final 20 minutes of their Danish disaster. He turned in a tigerish display, and was aggressive and positive enough to give shape and balance to the midfield.

QUICK FACT

Why do Celtic continue to give attendance figures that pay no heed to the attendance? Because the club always count their 52,000 season ticket holders, rather than attendees, the 55,117 attendance announced was 15,000 more than were there.

TALKING POINT

Celtic, on 43 points, have a haul greater than at the corresponding stage in each of the previous four seasons
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The Scotsman


In the bleak midwinter

By Andrew Smith

AS CELTIC'S flight took off from Denmark hours after their European hopes had crashed and burned on Tuesday night, Gordon Strachan sat front of plane with the pain of his team's abject capitulation etched on to his face. "You could see the disappointment all over the manager," says Shaun Maloney. "It was beyond what I have ever seen him like before."

The consequences of the 2-1 reverse in Aalborg, and the reaction to it, appear beyond anything known in recent times. Even allowing for Celtic's final Champions League group game at home to Villarreal, the way they folded in Denmark after leading 1-0 with 17 minutes remaining against the weakest team they have faced in six such campaigns will leave a stain not easily washed away.

Never mind that they will seldom have a better opportunity to end their winless away run in the group stage which has now stretched to 18 games. Never mind that the Danish debacle caused them to lose out even on a UEFA Cup place against a club whose player budget is a 10th of Celtic's £40m spend.

In denying Scotland a victory after 13 attempts from the country's five European representatives this season, the Aalborg calamity, coupled with Rangers' Champions League qualifying flop against Kaunas, could have a horrendous impact. It appears destined to cost next season's Scottish champions automatic entry to the group stage for the start of the 2010-11 season, with Greece firmly on course to replace them as the 12th and final-placed nation who enjoy that luxury. Scotland look destined to end up with their lowest season ranking and single co-efficient points total.

It was all so different last season when we had three teams competing in Europe after Christmas, with Celtic progressing to the last 16 of the Champions League, Rangers appearing in the UEFA Cup final and Aberdeen reaching the last 32 of the same competition. Those performances led to an exalted fifth place in the rankings. In the space of 12 months, our standing has fallen off a cliff to the point where, with no European involvement in the new year, they are squealing from the foothills in 32nd position of the same list. Throw in the Scotland national team winning only one game in a calendar year for the first time in two decades, sliding down 19 places to 33 in the FIFA rankings in the process, and the broader picture appears a mid-winter midnight shade of black.

Cue "game in crisis" newspaper sections and coruscating comment from all quarters about the impoverished standards and contracting economic scales that have manifested themselves in a "worst ever" season in continental competition for our clubs; a period said by the bloodthirsty to demonstrate Scottish teams are now "the whipping boys of Europe". Is this the reality? Has there honestly been a nine-month decline so acute that Scotland can never again expect to scale the heady heights of last season? Or, as players, coaches and officials in the game have rushed to claim, is this season merely a blip caused by two results, in Lithuania and Aalborg, that were "freakish"?

Err, "yes" and "no" might be the best way to answer all of the above. In effect, the country has experienced not one but two extreme seasons. In 2007-8, Scottish clubs seemed to enjoy an inexhaustible supply of good fortune. Celtic won three home Champions League games courtesy of two deflected winners – one of these netted in the 90th minute – and a 93rd minute goalkeeping howler. Rangers reached the UEFA Cup final with only two victories in nine ties, and through scoring only five goals as they played out whole games without troubling opposing keepers. Aberdeen recorded only one win en route to the last 32 of the same competition. "If you look back a year ago, the national team's ranking and that for our clubs was probably falsely high. Now it is falsely low," says Rangers defender David Weir.

"We can compete, and most seasons Rangers and Celtic will give a decent account of themselves, as they have for the majority of the past decade. But we are not so equipped we will always reach the levels required. Last year we went to Lyon and won 3-0, then lost 3-0 to them at home.

"Only the elite nations, and maybe then even just England and Spain, will always have teams in the latter stages. Look at the Champions League now. Every team we played in our UEFA Cup run is in it. We were a better side than Sporting Lisbon, pretty convincing 2-0 aggregate winners over them, but they qualified for the last 16 this season with two games to spare. I don't think things have changed that much since we played them. We are at their level. We just have a problem in Scotland because we want everything, every year, and if we don't get it, it is all doom and gloom."

Specific doom and gloom has been applied to Celtic's performance in Aalborg. It simply defies analysis that they, almost masochistically, contrived to squander a host of chances and only the second winning position they have enjoyed in an away Champions League group game. As soon as the home team equalised in 73 minutes it was as if psychological scar tissue flared up, as if the Celtic players felt they were in the grip of invisible forces they could not prevent pulling the encounter towards the same conclusion as their prevent eight group games on the road under Strachan.

"I don't think that is the case," Maloney says. "I don't think when we lose a goal that happens, but I know the other night it looked like it did. I don't think we collectively panic as a team, it was just the momentum. With the away record we have there must be a reason for it, but I can't put my finger on it."

To Paul Lambert, who played for Celtic when, four years ago in the Nou Camp of all places, they secured their one point from 54 in Champions League group travels, there is no great mystery to Celtic's away record; or the fact that both Glasgow clubs were turned over by patently inferior teams in Europe this season.

"In both Denmark and Lithuania, Celtic and Rangers were forced into playing cup-tie football," he says. "In these sort of games, anything can happen. It doesn't matter a jot if you are paid 100 times more than your opponent. These teams are boosted beyond their normal levels by the occasion, the appearance of the cameras, a full stadium roaring them on. Any result becomes possible, as cup-ties always prove. Scotland showed that in beating France, Celtic in the wins over AC Milan and Manchester United, and in the home results in my time.

"If Celtic were in a two-team league with Aalborg and Rangers were in a two-team league with Kaunas, they would win the vast majority of the games. I was part of the crappy away run and so I'm not going to throw stones at the current Celtic guys about it continuing.

"We had an excellent manager and an excellent squad but let ourselves down against Rosenborg, Anderlecht and Porto. A stigma has built up for Celtic over this and they will have an extra burden in away games until they break free of it.

"But take a wider view and, with two UEFA Cup finalists and three teams in the last 16 of the Champions League across the last six years alone, our small nation has punched above its weight. When you do that, there are bound to be seasons you also take some thumps."

Yet, in both of Scotland's big hitters suffering low blows in the same year, the entire contingent of the country's European representatives has accumulated fewer co-efficient points than Aberdeen alone did last season. A statistic that Pittodrie manager Jimmy Calderwood puts down squarely to "bad luck".

"Celtic did enough to win the other night and if Rangers had signed Pedro Mendes in time to play against Kaunas, I'm sure they wouldn't have lost in Lithuania," he says. "But with the money becoming ever tighter it will become ever more difficult for other Scottish teams to make an impact. We have lost a host of the players who helped us into the last 32 of the UEFA Cup last year and even Rangers and Celtic are vulnerable to losing their best players to England, where the finances are phenomenal."

The 1.375 co-efficient total – which would be pushed up slightly were Celtic to beat Villarreal in 10 days' time – will remain on Scotland's record for five years. And, when the 10.250 figure from last season is loped off in four years' time, Scotland will struggle to maintain its current standing... but for another miraculous European odyssey as enjoyed across 2007-08. Furthermore, the format changes initiated by UEFA president Michel Platini that will come into force next season are likely to count against Scotland, who do not have the strength in depth of other nations.

Maloney, who maintains the current Celtic squad boast technically better and fitter players than the group he helped reach the last 16 of the Champions League before departing for Aston Villa two years ago, insists: "It is not the time to go completely overboard about the state of Scottish football."

Too late. Even if, with an outrageous trough having followed an outrageous peak, a year down the line might be the proper time to take stock.

It is worth recalling that in 2006, one season on from the 5-0 Champions League qualifying defeat away to Artmedia Bratislava that stands as the club's worst result in 46 years of cross-border competition, Celtic enjoyed their best showing in the continent's top tier tournament for more than three decades.

With middling players, they and Rangers have their work cut out to bounce back in similar fashion. If they don't, however, this season's write-off could indeed become the Scottish script for future European chapters.



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The Scotsman


Strachan sees win as best way to deal with disappointment

By Andrew Smith

GORDON STRACHAN praised the mental strength of his players after they hauled themselves through a 12th successive league win with a 1-0 victory over Inverness Caledonian Thistle. An afternoon's work that allowed them to take a seven-point lead over Rangers, it was made taxing more by the torture of exiting Europe in shambolic fashion with the midweek 2-1 defeat by Aalborg than their Highland opponents.

"Technically we were down on what we can normally produce," admitted the Celtic manager. "But we were fit and mentally 100%. It has not been easy for the players this week. But we have shown that we can deal with disappointment, deal with injuries and deal with not being at our best. We have also had Champions League and League Cup games to contend with in this period, as well as having six players away playing international games."

Questioned over whether he was surprised his players had put so much daylight between themselves and their great rivals in so short a space of time, Strachan claimed "nothing" about results such as Rangers' defeat in the Scottish Premier League yesterday surprises him.

He said he did not find it odd that Rangers' midday defeat at Tynecastle did nothing to improve the disposition of Celtic Park crowd, only around 40,000 in number. The result in Aalborg appeared to be still too raw for that. A fact Strachan acknowledged. "It is hard for the supporters as well, emotionally. They are on the same journey as us."

He was full of praise for Shunsuke Nakamura and Shaun Maloney for their telling contribution for the winning goal.

"For Nakamura to get the ball up and down with not too much pace in it, was the best part," he said.

"It was a clever run by Shaun, he knew that probably the only person on the pitch who could play that pass was Nakamura.

"If the ball had gone to a lot of other people, I don't think Shaun would have made that run.

"But that was two good players combining."



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