Mowbray expects more from Keane

The Hoops star's second-half penalty in the 3-0 Scottish Premier League win over St Johnstone at Parkhead on Saturday was his ninth goal in nine games since arriving on loan from Tottenham at the end of January.With nine SPL games remaining, and an Active Nation Scottish Cup semi-final against Hibernian or Ross County to come, Mowbray is expecting a continuation of the theme."A goal a game? I think so," the Hoops' boss said."He could have scored more than the penalty kick against St Johnstone."Most goalkeepers seem to be inspired against Robbie and there were a few good saves against him but I'm sure the chances will continue to come."Like all top strikers he is looking to score goals and I'm sure he will continue to score goals in the last nine games or whatever is left."Mowbray revealed that Keane's strike partner against Saints, Paul McGowan, had "cemented" his place in the first-team squad with his performance in what was his first SPL start of the season and he believes the 22-year-old could be a perfect foil for the Republic of Ireland star."Keane has shown me that he is the type of player that plays on the shoulder of the last defender," the former Hibernian and West Brom boss said."You either have a big guy who Robbie can play off, or you have a guy like McGowan who is half-striker, half-midfielder and who can turn and slide the ball between the gaps."Robbie showed that while there were numerous offside decisions that were marginal, there are one or two in the 90 minutes where he is through one-on-one with the goalkeeper."It is trying to find the balance to the team."Teenage defender Josh Thompson scored his first goal for the Hoops since signing from Stockport last summer to give them a half-time advantage before Keane netted the penalty to effectively end the contest.Substitute Georgios Samaras, on for Marc-Antoine Fortune, completed the scoring with three minutes remaining as the Parkhead men went to within 10 points of SPL leaders Rangers, albeit having now played a game more.Former Hoops centre-back Mowbray was more pleased about Thompson's defensive abilities than his goal."It's always good for a young player to score his first goal, it's something he will always remember," he said."But we are all more pleased with the clean sheet rather than the goal."He is going to build his career on clean sheets rather than goals."For a young guy who has just turned 19, he has done exceptionally well and I'm delighted that he is progressing the way he is."Mowbray surprised a few by keeping Lukasz Zaluska in goal even though regular number one Artur Boruc had returned from Poland after being given compassionate leave.The Celtic boss hinted at a different attitude towards his goalkeeping selection strategy in the run-in.He said: "Zaluska deserved to stay in goals and again he kept a clean sheet."I've spoken to both of them, both understand my thoughts on the matter and we will wait and see how we develop it."St Johnstone boss Derek McInnes saw additions to his lengthy injury list as Kenny Deuchar limped off with an ankle injury after only 15 minutes and Steven Milne pulled a hamstring.However, he quickly turned his thoughts to the game against Falkirk in midweek."I think we have only lost two games on the spin twice this season," he said."We usually come back with a positive result after losing a game."We have a different agenda from Celtic, we want to stay in the league and then move it on."We want to get above the next team, which is Hearts, and we will keep working hard to do that."We have five games before the split, three of those at home and we have an opportunity on Tuesday to get ourselves further away from the bottom club and also help our case to pull in Hearts."

Source: Team_Talk