Celts have clear the air meeting and then go clear in the SPL

Last updated : 25 October 2009 By Mikbhoy

Maloney - Superb strike to put the Celts one up
First half goals from Shaun Maloney and Scott McDonald had Celtic cruising in today's SPL clash at Hamilton but a goal from Mickael Antoine-Curier for the home side set up a nail-biting finish in the driving wind and rain. In fact Celtic keeper Lukasz Zaluska, in for the injured Artur Boruc, had to make a terrific save from James McArthur to prevent the home team snatching what would have been an undeserved share of the spoils. Stephen McManus refused to reveal the details of the players'meeting held with the management team last night but he's hopeful that the talks will prove to have been constructive.

"We had a good meeting yesterday and it stays between the lads and the coaching staff," said the skipper. "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."

"We won the game so it's an improvement." said Mick "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. It's as important that everyone rallies around."

Manager Mowbray himself refused to get drawn on the aesthetics of the performance, carried out in atrocious weather conditions, preferring instead to accept the points and move on to the next challenge. "It's a welcome three points and it puts us back where we want to be and hopefully we can push on from there,'' said the boss. "If you look at the table you will see Glasgow Celtic on top of it. We won and that's the important thing. It's all about results and we got the result today so we won't analyse it too deeply. I didn't feel threatened until the last five minutes, we generally controlled the game. I was happy with the endeavour, commitment and desire to win the match. 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."