Strachan Blast At 'Laziness'

Jul 20 2008 By Mark Guidi

GORDON STRACHAN accused his men of having "lazy minds"as they crashed to a 3-1 defeat at Fulham.

The gaffer reckons his players failed to step up to the demands of their hectic pre-season schedule but insists he will continue to crack the whip.

Strachan fielded an almost identical team to the side that beat Southampton 2-0 less than 24 hours earlier.

He said: "Both sides were rusty with their passing, especially us in the first 20 minutes.

"We had lazy minds from last night. We finished the game at 10pm then were up at 9am and on the go again.

"It's like training. I asked them to train hard on Monday and again on Tuesday. We don't take days off and some of the guys played 60 minutes.

"Maybe we didn't give them a chance to relax after the Southampton game."

Celts defender Mark Wilson admits Strachan made his feelings clear in the dressing-room.

Wilson said: "The manager wants us to put on a good show.

"But he felt our passing was not as good as it should have been and we gave away the ball too often. He was disappointed as were the boys that we lost."

Celts fly to Portugal today for a tournament involving Cardiff, Middlesbrough and Porto.

Wilson is sure there will be better displays, adding: "We'll have Artur Boruc and Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink back."