Strachan bemused by inconsistency

SCOTTISH FA CUP QUARTER-FINALS: St Mirren 1 Celtic 0GORDON STRACHAN will look outside the coaching manual as he seeks answers to Celtic's inconsistency in time for next Sunday's Old Firm League Cup final at Hampden.

The Parkhead manager is once again fighting off criticism after his side sensationally crashed out of the Scottish FA Cup to St Mirren on Saturday.

The Hoops thrashed Saints 7-0 in the Premier League at Celtic Park a week earlier and then went back top of the SPL on Wednesday night with a 2-1 win at Kilmarnock.

It was then assumed that they had at last recovered their form which saw them win 12 successive league games earlier in the season and that Saturday’s trip to New St Mirren Park for their quarter-final tie would be a formality.

However, the SPL champions displayed again the sluggishness which has dogged their displays in recent months when they let slip a seven-point lead over rivals Rangers at the top of the table.

Former Republic of Ireland under-21 international Billy Mehmet’s second-half penalty – after Celtic skipper Stephen McManus had felled Craig Dargo inside the box – gave Saints their first cup win over Celtic in 47 years and put them in to the semi-finals for the first time since they won the cup in 1987.

Strachan is certainly aware of the ramifications of defeat to Rangers next Sunday. “We had three good performances in a row before the St Mirren game but that wasn’t a good one,” he said.

“That is the inconsistency that we have shown this year. I’d love to get a consistency that you could pick the same team every week but we don’t have 11 or 12 who stay in the team all the time.

“That’s my job to find it but if you go along to the coaching courses they don’t say, ‘if you want to go back on a long run, this is what you do’. You are out on a limb as a manager and you have to try and find ways to get that consistency back.”

Meanwhile Kyle Lafferty scored twice as Rangers cruised into the last four with a 5-1 victory over Hamilton at Ibrox yesterday.

ST MIRREN: Smith, Ross, Potter, Haining, Camara, Dorman, Murray, Thomson, Brady, Mehmet, Dargo (Wyness 90). Subs not used: Howard, Hamilton, Barron, McGinn. Booked: Dorman, Thomson.

CELTIC: Boruc, Hinkel, Caldwell, McManus, O'Dea (Conroy 83), Nakamura, Crosas (Samaras 74), Scott Brown, McGeady, McDonald, Vennegoor of Hesselink. Subs not used: Mark Brown, Hartley, Loovens. Booked: McManus, Vennegoor of Hesselink.

Referee: C Richmond (Scotland).