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.
