Gordon Strachan was encouraged by the performance of his Celtic side following the 1-0 defeat to Rangers but accepted that it would now be difficult to win the title.

As reported by Sky sports, Kevin Thomson’s strike on the stroke of half-time took Rangers six points clear at the top of the Scottish Premier League, while Walter Smith’s side also have a game in hand on their Glasgow rivals.

There are still two Old Firm matches to be played at Celtic Park this season but Strachan admits that he still needs Rangers to drop points elsewhere.

Strachan was nevertheless pleased with certain aspects of the Celtic display at Ibrox and hopes his team can now become more consistent.

“The first half gave me great encouragement and I couldn’t see a goal coming,” he said.

“They got the goal which energised them for 10 or 15 minutes at the start of the second half. We should have defended that goal a bit better, that was too easy. We were hugely disappointed but I went away thinking I have a lot of good stuff to work with here.

No complaints

“I think we just need to tidy up one or two things then we will eventually get back to being a good side. It is difficult now to keep our title. We have got to win the two Old Firm games and hope that Rangers can drop points somewhere else. But we can’t complain about it, we put ourselves in that position. Rangers’ consistency has given them this lead and you don’t win leagues when you are inconsistent.”

Strachan also defended his decision to leave out Scott McDonald and start with Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink and Georgios Samaras up front.

He explained: “We have three good strikers. In the last five games Georgios and Jan have scored more goals than Scott.

“Georgios has been playing very well and he equipped himself very well. I think he justified his position and Scott took the decision like a man, which was good.”