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We'll make our own history says Tony Mowbray

Last updated : 06 August 2009 By Mikbhoy
Mowbray: Forget about the past, we'll make our own history!

Mowbray congratulates match winner Samaras
Celtic manager Tony Mowbray gave all the credit to his players following last night's deserved 2-0 win over Dinamo Moscow. It may have been six years since Celtic had an away win in Europe, as the Scottish sports media like to keep reminding us, and the first time that Celtic have recovered from a first leg home defeat in European competition but before the game the boss instructed his charges to ignore those statistics. "We told them to forget about history." he said "To go and make our own and thankfully they did."

"We were unlucky to lose last week and we came here believing we could win." added the manager. "I'd like to believe that there won't be too much argument that over the two legs the best team won. Dinamo play a very structured counter-attacking game as they did in Glasgow and the only difference is that this time we controlled the game and took two chances."

Scott McDonald had levelled the tie on aggregate just before half time when he connected with Andreas Hinkel's pinpoint cross to head past the Dinamo keeper. The introduction of substitutes Scott Brown and Georgios Samaras in the second half gave Celtic added impetus in their drive for the winner and the Greek international scored with a glorious solo effort in the 91st minute. The manager refused to take credit for the tactical changes which decided the tie.

"As a coach I don't think I've never not made a substitution during a game." said Mowbray. "If he goes on and has a positive impact it's great, if you lose a goal its rubbish, there's no in between. Scott Brown wasn't ready to start this game, not after just 60 minutes playing time. We used him sensibly and he did a good job."

"Our concentration levels were exceptionally high," he said. "You have to have a Plan B in any match and maybe at some point Dynamo would have had it. I was never planning for extra-time. I always believed we could win. So even when Shaun Maloney missed a great chance late on, I didn't think our chance was gone. Sometimes when chances go begging you fear the worst but we created enough to come through whether in the first minute or the last. We deserved to win 2-0."

The draw for the final qualification stage of the Champions League will be held tomorrow with some heavyweights, including Arsenal, as potential opponents but Mogga refused to look too far ahead. "It's just the next game for me," he said. "That's my philosophy in life and football. You try and learn from the last one and we learned from last Wednesday. If we get beaten at the weekend (in the friendly against Manchester City) it'll be crisis again. My job is to get the players to buy into my way of playing and we just keep working at it."