Doubting Thomas

Last updated : 04 January 2011 By Grahame Greeen
Daniel Majstorovic believes Celtic showed their critics just what they are made off with their convincing win over rivals Rangers at Ibrox on Sunday. Rangers were favourites to overtake Celtic again with a win over their city rivals but keeper Fraser Forster was untroubled all afternoon as Celtic defended resiliently and grabbed the win with a second-half double from Georgios Samaras. Neil Lennon's side are now four points clear of Rangers at the top of the SPL with Celtic's stand-in skipper confident the Parkhead club can retain their advantage. Majstorovic said: "At a big club like Celtic there are always big expectations and big pressures to win all of the games. Over a season there are always a couple of games when a team doesn't play to the required level and we have not been taking our chances recently. But we showed yesterday that we are genuine title contenders. We are still in it."

The Swedish defender acknowledged Celtic had some good luck in the opening minutes when Lee McCulloch's header was knocked on to the bar and away by Celtic defender Emilio Izaguirre - but insists the result was deserved. Majstorovic went on: "
Rangers started well and we were lucky at the first corner. Emilio Izaguirre saved us there. The first half was very tough. There were a lot of heavy tackles flying in. But, after that, we were very solid. In the second half we played really good football and I think we deserved to win. We know the quality we have in the team and we showed that yesterday. We had some big players missing, but those who came in made a difference. We just need to believe in the quality we had and keep on going. We have a massive squad and we showed yesterday that it doesn't matter for us if a couple of them are missing. We can win this league."