Celtic defeat no comfort - Smith

11 November 2010 09:30
Manager Walter Smith took little comfort from losing no ground in the title race after Rangers finally surrendered an unbeaten league run at Ibrox stretching back 20 months. Hibernian headed into the clash joint bottom of the Clydesdale Bank Premier League standings and all-but written off ahead of the visit to Glasgow as Colin Calderwood sought his first win as manager. But goals from Liam Miller, John Rankin and Francis Dickoh stunned the Scottish champions and secured a much-needed victory for the beleaguered Edinburgh club and propelled them to eighth in the table. Celtic's defeat at Hearts meant the status quo remained at the other end of the SPL, with Rangers retaining their single-point advantage over their rivals at the summit. But Smith took little solace in the events at Tynecastle, saying: "That's not got much to do with it. I've said before that teams will drop points. After the first quarter of the season we have lost one game and drawn one and that's a fairly normal situation to be in. We obviously don't want it and we certainly didn't want to lose the game. "We've had warnings. In the previous home match against Inverness we were very similar in that we had a lot of possession of the ball but the required edge was missing. That's something we have to adjust and, from my side of things, I've maybe been a little bit slow to change the team around."

Source: PA