ASKING for four points from two games against Manchester United is bit like shooting for the moon, but Gary Caldwell has his sights set high.
The defender knows that if Celtic are to keep alive their hopes of reaching the last 16 of the Champions League they need to take something from Tuesday's match at Old Trafford and probably win the return in Glasgow on November 5.
Celtic have nev
er taken a four-point haul from any side in their previous five group campaigns and to do so against the holders would require an almighty improvement, not least in the Scottish side's defending because the Celtic back four have a nasty habit of being found wanting on high-pressure occasions.
Since August of last year, Gordon Strachan's men have played 12 Champions League ties and five Old Firm games. In only two of those 17 games have they kept clean sheets.
"It is not great but that is football," said Caldwell, who needed stitches in a foot injury during yesterday's win over Inverness and will face a fitness test on Tuesday. "We have won games where we have conceded goals. We score goals as a team and we lose goals as a team. People keep bringing up records and statistics, our away form (17 defeats and a draw in 18 Champions League ties] and this and that, but as a player you just get on with it.
"Against Villarreal we were very close to getting a good result. We were unfortunate in the end to lose a goal. We are getting closer and hope Man United will be the time when we get it."
Strachan's confidence in Caldwell has been rewarded with the player's best form for Celtic across the past six months, but the partnership with a struggling Stephen McManus still fails to convince. Weaknesses in the full-back areas patrolled by Lee Naylor and Mark Wilson haven't helped the duo.
Caldwell paired up with McManus when Celtic last played at Old Trafford, in September 2006. Then it was Thomas Gravesen's concession of possession that proved instrumental in a 3-2 defeat.
"It was a great night and a great occasion but, with two-and-a-bit-years having passed, we are more experienced, have improved a lot and hope to be able to show that," Caldwell said.
Celtic could do that and still not prosper since Caldwell and his manager both accept that Alex Ferguson's men are better than they were when defeating Celtic, before losing 1-0 to them in the clubs' subsequent Glasgow meeting.
Whisper it, but Bobo Balde just happened to play alongside McManus that evening.
The full article contains 457 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
