Aiden McGeady: The monkey's off our back and so are boo Bhoys

Apr 20 2008 Gordon Waddell

AIDEN McGEADY reckons Celtic's Old Firm victory went a long way to silencing their critics.

It just saddens him that the ones who needed silenced the most were the Parkhead side's own fans.

The 22-year-old was honest enough to admit the filleting Gordon Strachan's men received in recent weeks for supposedly letting their SPL crown slip away did filter through to the dressing-room.

But Old Firm triumph lifted the gloom at Celtic Park and saw Strachan get the monkey off his back by notching his first derby win over Walter Smith.

Now McGeady hopes the fickle fans, who even booed Strachan as he made changes to chase the win on Wednesday night, have learned their lesson.

McGeady said: "These criticisms have only happened in the last few months when things haven't been going our way.

"Before then you never heard anything like that. It's only since we hit a bad run.

"It's part of football and everyone has an opinion but it's not always right and that win has answered a lot of critics.

"You try to blank it out but you also know it's being said about you and it's not nice.

"Everyone in our team was unhappy at the accusations being levelled against us.

"A lot of the flak has come from our fans as well and although they can voice their opinions because they pay their money, it's hard when they are criticising us. It's not nice at all.

"The last couple of performances have seen the fans start to turn now and see we've still got a long way to go in the league."

There wasn't much evidence of any change of heart with 15 minutes left on Wednesday night though.

With the game poised at 1-1 and Rangers reduced to 10 men Strachan decided to go with three up, chasing the win he so desperately needed to keep the Hoops' title dream alive.

But choosing the influential Barry Robson as his sacrificial lamb to introduce Georgios Samaras was greeted with a cacophony of boos around the stadium.

McGeady sighed: "That kind of thing doesn't help but we can't read into it too much. It's down to the individual fan.

"But by the full time whistle they were happy weren't they? They weren't saying anything about it then.

"We know we've got a good team - just look at the performance where everyone stuck to their task to get the victory."

No-one stuck two fingers up at his doubters more in midweek than Shunsuke Nakamura, a player often accused of vanishing when the going got tough in previous derbies.

McGeady said: "Naka is quality and his strike for the first goal was tremendous.

He should've had two as well if it wasn't for Cuellar's save because that was going in. It was some stop from a defender!

"But Naka answered a lot of critics because he has done it all before for us, especially some of the big games in the Champions League."

The Hoops will certainly have a dearth of big games between now and the end of the season with only the SPL title to slug it out for.

That's in stark contrast to Rangers who face two semi-finals in the next five days - but McGeady insists that can work in Celtic's favour.

He said: "The more games Rangers play the tougher it is going to be for them and the more tired they will be.

"It's not ideal that we're not involved in all competitions at the business end of the season but we've just got to make the best out of it."

By his own admission Scotland's Young Player of the Year wasn't at his peak on Wednesday night.

But for the second game on the spin he came face to face with effectively two right backs on his case as Gers sent out Kirk Broadfoot and Steven Whittaker to try to keep him quiet.

McGeady admitted: "It's flattering to realise I am a threat to them.

"That's part and parcel of football and it has happened more and more in recent weeks, Motherwell did it as well with two right-backs.

"It's fine, I enjoyed the game and it's all part of learning.

"It does give other players in the team some space on the pitch if two come to press me.

"If there's two defenders against me every week now I'm just going to focus on my own game and try to do my best."

The changes made by Rangers at half-time altered the dynamic down that side of the pitch though.

Those substitutions also led to the incident that sparked mayhem when the final whistle sounded.

Nacho Novo's constant chirping at McGeady that the Gers defence had him in their back pocket after his half-time introduction was evident.

As was the Celtic star's clear delight at informing the little Spaniard of the final score at the death.

The ensuing flashpoint ended up as the big talking point of the night but McGeady shrugged: "I don't want to go into it too much, things like that happen, players talk to each other and he was giving a few remarks and so was I.

"When we went 2-1 up he sort of changed his tune a little bit."