Tony Mowbray knows that a win in the Scottish Cup tie against Dunfermline today is vital. Overcoming a ten point deficit in the SPL is not impossible but realistically the Scottish Cup is the likeliest route to silverware for the manager's new squad. At the pre-match press conference the boss was immediately questioned about the 'crisis' at Celtic.
"You're reading your own media, if that makes sense," he said. "My philosophy doesn't change. I bring a philosophy of what will bring long-term success and continue down that road. When it's done, the evidence is there, it'll be in your face. I don't see the panic, to be fair. I don't see the panic, I don't hear the panic, it doesn't interest me. I get on with my job, build a team that will give us long-term success."
The media expressed their concerns 'on behalf of the worried fans', because they've always got our best interests at heart (aye, right, I hear you say). "I've got every respect for our fans." said the boss. "They're up there with the best in the world. And yet the manager of the football team can't listen to every fan because we've got millions of them all over the world."
"There'll be some fans who are not very happy, some fans who want change." said Mowbray. "But there are a lot of fans who I bump into on the street who say, 'Keep the faith - it will come'. We get disappointed, hugely disappointed, when we don't win football matches. But there has to be a bigger picture of where we're taking this club and where we're going to be and the foundations that we put in place."
The manager was asked if today's game takes on extra significance following the defeat at Kilmarnock in midweek. "No, I don't think so," he said. "It's a game we have to go and win, as we try to win every game. What do you want me to say? We go and try to win the next football match - that's every week. The league game coming on Wednesday night, we've got to go and try to win that. Hopefully, another cup game will come; we've got to try to win that. We don't not try to win any football matches."
The boss confirmed that the sometimes hot-headed Scott Brown would captain the team for the rest of the season. "You're not going to change his personality overnight," Mowbray said of the man he also managed at Hibernian. "He has the potential for flare-ups, because that's his personality. Since the day I walked into Hibs all those years ago, I could understand Scott's personality. He wants to win and he wants to be a winner out on the field, and he pushes himself really hard for that - and it's not a bad ingredient to have. Sometimes it needs tempering, of course. But you shouldn't be criticising him for the fire in his belly."
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