Dundee Utd 0
Celtic 1
League (Premiership)

Manager's Programme Notes

Obviously Tannadice was a much happier place this week after victories over St Johnstone and Dumbarton. The thoroughly deserved win over St Johnstone was a much needed confidence booster to settle everyone down. The goals came at the nght time for us, and despite the emphatic victory. I still feel there is room for improvement in terms of passing, but hopefully we can build on it and everything else falls into place. The structure of the side was solid enough,
but there were occasional lapses of concentration at set pieces or when long balls were played into our penalty area, when we could do wrth showing a bit more aggression. But overall I was happy wrth the thnee points, albeit there was a touch of good fortune surrounding Keith Watson's opener but with the way things have gone in our last few games, I think a bit of the rub of the green was overdue.

Perhaps the most pleasing thing was that having only scored one goal previously, we went on to create loads of chances, and more importantly, took a few of them. I did say after the Hibs game that somebody would take a bit of a doing from us and happily it came a week later. Having four different goal scorers is another plus, especially as Goodie got off the mark. I shuffled the pack in midweek for the League Cup tie at Dumbarton because it is important that we utilise our whole squad. I was very pleased wrth Nadir's contribution. He looked strong and sharp and took both his goals well to put his name in the frame to face Cetec. And the ones who came in can help push the others on. Going back to the game itself, the main thing was that we came through it and it was testament to the lads' character that they kept going. Although we left it late, I still thought we did enough to win, especially when you consider the early chances we missed. This afternoon of course we have a major test against a Celtic side that always have a winning mentality. They again showed that this week, by coming fnom two down against Inverness to draw last weekend. Then in mid-week by overhauling a two goal first leg deficit against Shakhter Karagandy to reach the group stages of the Champions League. It is further evidence of the expectations and desire within the club and those are the qualities that make them champions. The pressure is on them to win every game and that is an attitude I want to instil in my own players. In particular that even if you are not at your best, you can get yourself back into games even when the chips are down. There was obviously massive pressure on Neil Lennon to go through on Wednesday, but his side came up trumps despite the loss this summer of such influential players as Kelvin Wilson. Victor Wanyama and Gary Hooper.

For Celtic, it is important to do well on all fronts and again that is another area in which I want our players to follow. In recent meetings with Celtic, we have conceded too many goals. Their last visit here at the end of the season was particularly disappointing as they came from set pieces. It is a big factor in their game because they are so dangenous from them and consequently we must be really switched on when defending these. Happily, we have only lost two goals in the league so far, and last week against St Johnstone was another clean sheet for Rado. That is in contrast to last season when our defensive record was so poor. And having started the season looking more solid at the back, it is something we must continue and improve on. And in that regard, it is good to have Gavin Gunning available again this afternoon following his suspension for the big task of facing Celtic.