The Celtic boss was quoted midweek as saying that he loved the "bang, bang!" excitement that these Glasgow derbies against Rangers generate but 'phut, phut!' would have been a more apt description for today's toothless performance. It was widely accepted beforehand that Huns manager Smith would be happy with a draw and that he would set out his side to achieve that result but it wasn't anticipated that Celtic would conspire to make their job so much easier.
"At the moment we're not at our best, so we've just got to plug along until we get back there," said Strachan following the 0-0 draw at Celtic Park. "But we've got good players and they will come again. To put it simply, last week we were two points ahead of Rangers with 14 games to go and this week we are two points ahead with 13 games to go."
"Up front, we're not functioning as a group, because there are five strikers at the club," continued the manager. "That group has to come to the fore now and score us goals. All you can do is keep working at it and there's a bit of magic that needs to come along, or a bit of luck to get these guys scoring again. It's not for the lack of effort, that's for sure."
Artur Boruc, who had been the subject of some disgraceful rumours in the lead up to today's match, produced a fine performance and two saves in particular impressed his boss and the Celtic support "It was good to see him back to where he was a wee while ago, where he's actually saving games for us," said the Celtic manager. "I enjoyed that. But there weren't enough players on the pitch playing to the best of their talent, on both sides. Walter (Hun manager Smith) probably had two or three good performances and we were the same. First half, we played the way we wanted to play, without the finish. The second half, we played too much back-to-front, which suited Rangers and they picked up the second ball and attacked us from that. With the way we played, I think a draw is a fair result for us."