Celtic produced a good display at Parkhead last night when they beat Hapoel Tel-Aviv 2-0 in Match Day 5 of the Europa League, but they were still knocked out of the competition, and Hapoel still progressed, after Hamburg beat Rapid Vienna 2-0 in Group C's other match.
The Celts started the game brightly against the group leaders and when Aidan McGeady's fine cross was headed firmly into the back of the net by the onrushing Georgios Samaras in the 22nd minute it was no more than the Bhoys deserved. Celtic weren't as dominant after the break but they were never unduly bothered by an Israeli side who had scored eight goals in their previous two games in the competition and when Barry Robson scored with a beautifully taken free kick in the 67th minute the game was as good as over.
Aiden McGeady today admitted that the side's lack of consistency and their profligacy in front of goals had cost them dear but he hopes that the performance and result will give the team the confidence to kick on in the fight for the SPL title. "The first half we played the way we started the season." said the Republic of Ireland midfielder. "It's been a bit up and down and I think criticism is justified because we've not been playing the way we can. We've only got ourselves to blame for the position we've got ourselves in. It's down to games we should have won and chances we've missed. But hopefully this will give us the platform to kick on for the season."
Landry N'Guemo insisted that the ease of the victory over Hapoel actually added to the frustration of exiting the competition. The tenacious Cameroon international looked back at the mistakes made in earlier games and vowed that the side were working hard to eradicate the type of errors that cost them so dearly. "We're learning and we hope the mistakes we have made win us the title." said N'Guemo. "But this was an easy win and that is why we are disappointed overall. We had some good games before, but we made too many errors. Sometimes we just made one mistake in a game such as Hapoel away." 
"But last night was good and we played without mistakes and got the right score." added Celtic's number 6. "Stopping these mistakes is now the important thing for us. We have good players and a good team. Unfortunately, sometimes we can just make a little mistake and then a goal goes against us. It's happened before but hopefully it won't happen again. We will work hard in training to make sure it doesn't."
Skipper Gary Caldwell had an excellent game at the heart of the Celtic defence and after the match he congratulated Hamburg and Hapoel Tel Aviv on their progression to the knock-out phase of the tournament whilst insisting that he had no complaints about Celtic's exit. "We have no regrets." said 'Heid'. "You can't look back in football. We are disappointed to be out but we knew beforehand that qualification was a long shot. We just wanted to win this game and we did that."
"On those other nights we weren't good enough to pick up the points." said the captain. "And as I said, we can't dwell on what happened in this competition, that's in the past now, they are through so good luck to them. We are out of this competition so we have to focus on the SPL. The performances in our last two games have been good, it could have been more than 2-0, and we have to keep that going."
Barry Robson looked back on the double-header against Hamburg and voiced his annoyance that failing to take more than a point from the two games against the Bundesliga side had probably cost the team their place in the next round. "We have now played well in the last three games in Europe and we could have won them all." said the scorer of Celtic's second goal. "We missed a couple of chances at home and away to Hamburg, and everybody knows the stature of that club. They have the biggest wage bill and get money thrown at them in the Bundesliga. However, we more than held our own against them and probably outplayed them over the two games - so that is frustrating."
- Shunsuke who?
Now Robson and his team-mates turn their attention to Saturday's clash against Aberdeen, yet another 'must-win' game because - according to Barry - every Celtic game comes into that category. "We need to win the next game." he said. "This is Celtic Football Club and we need to win every game that we can. There is always pressure at Celtic, everyone is saying we are not playing well, we are not doing this and we are not doing that. But we did play well against St Mirren at the weekend and against Hapoel. The majority of these players have played in the last 16 of the Champions League and have won titles."
Marc Crosas is rapidly making himself indispensable in the centre of the Celtic midfield alongside Landry N'Guemo and the ex-Barcelona kid is pleased with the direction of the team. "I thought we played very well against Hapoel." he said. "We have had other good performances already this season but this was certainly one of our better displays. When you play well, score a couple of goals and don't concede any at the other end then everyone is happy. I thought we started the game well, took control of the match and it was nice to take the lead when Aiden McGeady provided a good cross for Georgios Samaras to head into the back of the net."
"Scoring the first goal is important." added the Catalan midfielder. "And it allowed us to play with more confidence and then Barry Robson scored an excellent free-kick to extend our lead. We actually had more chances and the scoreline could have been even better. But I thought we passed the ball well and there was a good balance. After winning at the weekend against St Mirren, it was good to build on that with a win over Hapoel."
"And it is now our hope that we can continue to win games." said Crosas. "We want to go on a run of games where we keep winning as we know we must now focus on the title and trying to win the league this season. That is our aim. I feel we have good players and are a good side and we are showing that now which is very pleasing."
Tony Mowbray was happy with his team's performance and he hopes the lessons learned throughout the campaign can be put to use in next year's premier European competition. "I think it was a solid and disciplined European performance," he said. "We took our opportunities whereas in the first four games we've probably had as many chances and not taken them. It's a very fine margin in football and you take your chances and you miss some. They've all been tight games and we've been a little bit unfortunate that we're out."
"But I think we can take encouragement from tonight." said the boss. "We won pretty comfortably in the end and we've got to take what we've learned this year into hopefully a Champions League campaign next year."