Saturday's encounter with St Mirren was the first of a three game run which the manager had highlighted as being a very important phase of the season. There is a slight chance that victory in tomorrow night's Group C game at Celtic Park could keep the club's slim hopes of qualification alive but boss Mowbray realises that the SPL title is the number one priority and therefore that a victory over Hapoel Tel Aviv may have more value as a morale booster for the squad in the race for the League flag.
scored twice on Saturday
"We will go out to try and win the game against Hapoel for the confidence levels of the team and the belief of the supporters." said Mowbray. "We'll try to keep the negativity away from the side. That's mainly it. Whatever happens with the results elsewhere, it's just the next game for us. The bigger picture for me to is to try and take three points against Aberdeen on Saturday, and it will be easier to do that if we get a positive result against Hapoel."
Hapoel are the surprise leaders of Group C having just emphatically beaten Rapid Vienna 5-1 at home and 3-0 away to confirm that their comeback victory over Celtic in Israel back in September was no fluke result. Their only defeat so far came in Hamburg where they still managed to score twice against the Bundesliga side so whilst manager Mowbray has confidence in his own team he's also justifiably wary of the threat that the Tel Aviv side carry going forward.
"I think they will come here and be very positive." said the Celtic boss. "They are a good football team who can score goals. They have some exceptionally talented midfield players and forwards. They'll come and try to enjoy the experience of Celtic Park. We have got to try and make it as uncomfortable a night for them as possible. But I don't think it's a game for us to be over-cavalier because, as the other clubs in the section have found, if you are not organised against Hapoel, they can hurt you."
"I was surprised Vienna lost the way they did against them." continued the manager. "Because Rapid are very much a counter-attacking side with a lot of men behind the ball. Hapoel are a very technical team and must have picked holes in them. So we must be very concentrated. It's an important game for us and we need to keep the confidence going. Another win to take into the match against Aberdeen at the weekend would help that. We want to try and make it three wins in a week."
"That game in Tel Aviv was a big, big frustration for us because we were in a winning position." he said. "For whatever reason - I've talked about the heat, it was sapping the energy - when I look back at the goals, there were some decisions we could have made better that would have stopped them from scoring. A point apiece might have been a fairer result for both teams on the night. But since then they have done exceptionally well. They scored two goals in Hamburg, even though they lost. Then, to score eight in two games against Vienna is exceptionally good by them."
"That's five goals in two games away from home." said Mogga. "So it's an interesting game and we're looking forward to the challenge because we've got to make sure we set up properly. It is not going to be an open game from us. But we've got to try and get a result."