My Stars Didn't Even Play

Feb 3 2008 By Mark Guidi

GORDON STRACHAN last night claimed his January signings inspired Celtic's 5-1 Scottish Cup stroll at Kilmarnock - even though only one of them played.

The Parkhead gaffer spent more than £4.5million to bring in Andreas Hinkel, Barry Robson, Georgios Samaras, Koki Mizuno and Ben Hutchinson.

Only on-loan Greek star Samaras played a part at Rugby Park as he came off the bench to score the fifth.

But Strachan reckons the other buys helped bring out the best in his team.

He said: "I hope the new signings geed up our players.

"It can be a long, hard season. Sometimes it's a slog and the squad can require a wee gee up. It helps in training and that takes itself into a matchday.

"I'm happy with the way we played and we were also mentally strong."

Scott McDonald grabbed a double while Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink and Gary Caldwell were also on target.

And defender Caldwell agreed the new arrivals helped freshen things up.

He said: "The players have come in and improved us without even playing. That's as good as we've been for a long time.

"No-one wants to lose his place and we realise there is competition for places.

"Paul Caddis played well at right-back and Georgios Samaras scored a lovely goal. He has great feet and showed composure."

By contrast Killie boss Jim Jefferies was gutted with his side's performance.

He said: "We allowed Celtic time and space. When you do that they will punish you. Simon Ford has been outstanding this season but he's an honest lad and has held his hands up. He had a poor day.

"We lost shape and concentration at vital moments. Alan Combe has saved us with some great stops.

"We have lost key players in the past year or two and need to kick on for the rest of the season. The players need to start believing and we can now concentrate on climbing the league table."