Source: Team_Talk
Scotland stars told to forget defeat
Defenders Stephen McManus, suspended anyway, Gary Caldwell and Danny Fox were handed their fair share of the blame for the 3-0 friendly defeat by Wales in Cardiff last Saturday which preceded the sacking of George Burley.[LNB]As the search for a new national team coach continues, one of the issues being discussed is the poor quality of players he would have at his disposal.[LNB]The Celtic boss, however, insists his men have to shrug off any lingering negativity and get their focus back on maintaining their place at the top of the SPL.[LNB]"Footballers have to lift themselves after any disappointment," said Mowbray.[LNB]"They have to get back to work and generally they do that, so it wasn't an issue this week.[LNB]"They were obviously disappointed and they were low.[LNB]"There was a lot of criticism of both the (Scotland) team and the management and there was a lot of negativity around.[LNB]"But what you've got to do is put them back on the training ground and get them back involved with their team mates and hopefully, enjoy their training."[LNB]None of the Scotland internationals at Parkhead will be as disappointed as Aiden McGeady, whose Republic of Ireland side were controversially knocked out of World Cup contention by a 2-1 play-off defeat to France.[LNB]Thierry Henry handled the ball in setting up the crucial goal for William Gallas and the fall-out from that incident continues.[LNB]Mowbray, like everyone else in the game, believes an injustice was served, but declared it is necessary to move on from such decisions.[LNB]The former Hibernian and West Brom boss said: "The football world will have sympathy.[LNB]"It was a wrong decision but you get wrong decisions every week and we have had one or two this season.[LNB]"But you take them on the chin and move on."[LNB]Mowbray, though, was quick to refer back to a perceived injustice of his own when Celtic were held 1-1 by United at Parkhead earlier in the season.[LNB]He said: "I haven't seen much of Dundee United recently.[LNB]"But I saw them against us at Celtic Park and they performed well, they have some good, strong players.[LNB]"That said, I thought that we recovered well after conceding an early goal and were probably unfortunate not to win the game, particularly late on when there were some chances and a hand ball (in the box), which was missed by the officials, sticks firmly in my mind."[LNB]After yet another international break where he was left working with a decimated squad, Mowbray looks forward to an uninterrupted run of around five months where he will be able work with his players and find the consistency that has been missing so far this season.[LNB]"We have no more breaks for a good four or five months now," he said.[LNB]"We now have a couple of Europa League games and the league games are coming thick and fast, so let's get stuck into it.[LNB]"We have been very good in some games and below par in others, so we are looking for consistency and most teams who are successful go through spells where they struggle to find it.[LNB]"One day they can be pretty good, the next day low par and we need to find a level of performance that can win us games, week-in, week-out.[LNB]"We need to build on positive results, so let's wait and see what happens."[LNB][LNB]
