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."
