Strachan pleased by McDonald
by Brian Etherson, 23 March 2008
Celtic stayed within touching distance of Rangers as the SPL title race enters its final stages with a 3-0 win over Gretna at Livingston.
Celtic manager Gordon Strachan was pleased with the outcome, but admitted to Setanta Sports in his post-match interview that Scott McDonald is now realising the type of pressure that is associated with playing for a big club like Celtic, as the Australian striker scored his first goal in five games for the Parkhead club.
“Well he’s got to get used to playing at the highest level,” Strachan told Setanta Sports. “Michael Owen has to get used to it, any time he goes without scoring, it’s a problem.
“And it’s the same with all top strikers at big clubs, you have to get analysed and he has to come through that and deal with it and he scored again today. I don’t know how many he’s scored. 27? But it’s his first wee drought at a big club and he’s just found out what real pressure is all about.”
The scenario that was discussed in the pre-match build up to the game transpired as Scott Brown’s booking will rule him out of the second Old Firm double header that is looming and Strachan, although disappointed that he will miss the Scotland international, insisted he will not change Brown’s style of play, but teach him how to tackle properly.
Strachan added: “Scott is a good player and we do have a few midfield players, but we cannot ask people to stop tackling.
“Again he needs to learn how to tackle, if you’re going to make a tackle, you need to learn how to tackle.”
Strachan did admit that his side were very fortunate to get the breaks that were missing in the last couple of games against Dundee United and Aberdeen respectively, and felt a degree of sympathy towards Gretna because of that.
Strachan said: “We were lucky to have people who can score goals and that helped us today and it was unfortunate it was against Gretna because we got one or two wee breaks today that we haven’t been getting recently and it’s just unfortunate that they have to play us on the day that we get the breaks.”