Celtic gaffer Gordon Strachan was delighted with the performance of his side yesterday so much so that he insisted the 4-2 victory over Motherwell was one of the best performances he's seen in his time at Parkhead.
The Celts hit the ground running as they looked to make amends for their hugely disappointing derby showing of two weeks ago. Goals from Shaun Maloney and Scott McDonald and a brace from Georgios Samaras giving them a four goal lead at half time meant that they did just that.
A couple of goals from Motherwell after the break reminded them that the job wasn't quite done at half time but Strachan was well pleased with the overall performance. "Most of our games this year have been excellent and that was another cracking one. That's as good as we've produced for a long time" he said.
"There was a great flow to the game, everybody knew when the ball was getting passed and there was movement at the right time. It was magnificent. At the start of the second half we could have wrapped it up and near the end we were one pass away from walking the ball into the net again."
His team selection looked as if he had one eye on the Champions League opener against Aalborg on Wednesday, a vital game for the club. "We had to play guys who have not played regularly. It's hard to say to them 'OK you're in a European tie now' after they have been out of the team. So it was a bit of a gamble but I'm pleased with the performance. Now I have options for Wednesday."
He wasn't so happy about Motherwell's opener and suggested that in his younger days he'd have hounded the ref up the park, he said: "I loved the boys' discipline at Motherwell's first goal. If that had been the Aberdeen side I played for 20 years ago we'd have been chasing the ref up the pitch. Please tell me you saw it? I'll let people watch it and make their mind up. They talk about having respect for the ref and he got that from our players. "I don't know how good the boys would have been if that was an equaliser."
Mark McGhee admitted his side were outclassed "Things went wrong because Celtic were so good. They were fast, powerful and inventive - we were just outclassed. Celtic would have done something similar to most teams in the SPL. Perhaps Celtic's display changed in the second half but I was pleased with our reaction. But we have to look at the first half as a measure of how far we still have to go