An away win, three points and pulling further ahead of the pack at the top of the SPL should have had Tony Mowbray smiling as he met the press after the 2-0 victory over St Mirren but the Celtic boss instead conveyed his dissatisfaction with the fare supplied by his side. Danny Fox had a poor game by his own high standards and the full-back agreed with the manager that recent performances have not been acceptable. In fact Fox reckons that the team have been on the slide since the first SPL game of the season at Aberdeen.
"The gaffer sets high standards and was right to let off steam because we fell beneath what was acceptable to him." said the left-back. "Fingers can be pointed at me on a personal basis for the way I played and I can't argue with that, but what better time can there be to come back and do better?"
Celtic face a double-header over the next six days which will have a huge influence on the rest of their season. First and foremost is the Europa League clash with Cheating Vienna on Thursday before they cross the Clyde for Sunday's match against Rangers but Fox insists that the Huns clash will not be on their minds this week. "I can't begin to think about Rangers now because if ever there was a case for taking one game at a time then this is it." he said. "We can't look beyond Rapid Vienna and making up for our performance against St Mirren. We need to gel more as a team and the only positive I could take out of winning this match was that we managed to keep a clean sheet.
"The first half against Aberdeen on the opening day of the season at Pittodrie, when we were three goals up, was the last time the team played really well." said Celtic's number eleven. "There were little flashes of good play when we took five goals off St Johnstone at Celtic Park but we haven't been as good as we were on the first day. I have to accept we fell beneath the expectation level that's associated with Celtic when we played St Mirren. We got the victory and that was about it, apart from Paddy McCourt's great goal. None of what he's doing now has come as a great surprise to the rest of the team because we see him doing that type of thing in training every day."
Fox arrived at Celtic via Everton, Stranraer, Walsall and Coventry City and he is finally playing at the level he has striven for since pulling on his boots as an apprentice at Everton. "This is what I've worked all my life to be part of." he said. "You shouldn't be in football if you can't get excited by the prospect of a game like the one against Rapid Vienna. We have to get ourselves sorted out as a team for that one."
Of course the match against the cheating Austrians will be played against a backdrop of bitterness following the European Cup-Winners Cup clash of 25 years ago. Although Fox wasn't born then he's aware of the history and determined to help avenge the injustice Celtic suffered at the hands of Vienna and UEFA. "The players can't control the fans' emotions on the night but what we can, and must, do is sort ourselves out on the park." said the defender. "It gives me a tremendous sense of satisfaction to be involved in a game like this one. I was brought up as an Everton fan and my dad was always going on about the night they beat Rapid Vienna to win the European CupWinners' Cup."
"That game came in the same season as Celtic had their trouble with the Austrians." he continued. "And nothing will get in the way of me helping to beat Rapid, not even the thought of going to Ibrox for the first time. When the final whistle goes on Thursday night the game against Rangers might be the first thing I think about, but not before then. I'm reliably informed there is nothing that compares with an Old Firm match, not even the Merseyside derby. But there's another huge match to attend to first of all."
"Celtic need to put down a marker against Rapid Vienna." insisted Fox. "We need to be an awful lot better than we were against St Mirren to begin with. We have to worry about ourselves and put the hype out of our minds when we play a side who have beaten Aston Villa to qualify for the Europa League and started the group by hammering Hamburg."