Mowbray relishes winning return
Monday October 26 2009
STEPHEN McMANUS has revealed the Celtic players and management held a clear-the-air meeting on Saturday following a fractious beginning to Tony Mowbray's tenure as Parkhead manager.
Mowbray had bemoaned the lack of quality at his disposal in recent weeks, even though yesterday's 2-1 win over Hamilton at New Douglas Park took the club a point above Old Firm rivals Rangers at the top of the SPL.
Yesterday's win was Celtic's first in five games and McManus conceded that only time will tell if the meeting has made a difference.
"We had a good meeting (on Saturday) and it stays between the lads and the coaching staff," said McManus, who was criticised by Mowbray after recent games against Rapid Vienna and Rangers.
"Time will tell if it has been beneficial. Over the course of the season you have chats as a group and that's what happened.
"Communication is a big factor in any line of work but one thing we are looking to do as players, manager and coaching staff is to drive the club forward." McManus, who was off the pitch for the last 15 minutes of the first half to get stitches in an eye wound, added: "We won the game so it's an improvement. But we are not going to kid ourselves on as a team. As individuals we need to get better. The manager has his ideas which we take on board. The most important thing is that everyone in the dressing-room, the manager and the players, are all going in the right direction and that's what we want." Mowbray was relieved to escape Lanarkshire with all three points after a late scare.
"I was happy with the endeavour, commitment and desire to win the match," he said. "But it's all about results and the history books will show that we won 2-1. It's just another three points and we will move on."
disjointed
After a disjointed start, Hamilton were architects of their own downfall in the 15th minute. Midfielder Marco Paixao carelessly lost possession to Andreas Hinkel deep in his own half and, when the German's cross came over to the back post, Shaun Maloney volleyed the ball across Accies goalkeeper Tomas Cerny and into the corner of the net for his fourth goal of the season.
Scott McDonald made it 2-0 14 minutes later. Aiden McGeady and Georgios Samaras combined at pace down the right and, when the ball broke to the Australia international eight yards out, he slammed it past Cerny with the aid of a deflection.
Celtic were cruising through the second half until Mickael Antoine-Curier revived the home side with a goal seven minutes from the end.
That sparked a frantic finale and Celtic goalkeeper Lukasz Zaluska made a fine save to deny James McArthur the equaliser.
- Hamilton 1 Celtic 2 Jamie Holland
Irish Independent
