Tony Mowbray has called for unity amongst his Celtic squad as they try to recover from yet another setback in their spluttering season. The Parkhead club lost 2-1 away to Dundee United at the weekend, handing the advantage to rivals Rangers in the race for the SPL title.
The disposed champions have struggled for form under new boss Mowbray, who moved to the club from relegated West Brom in the summer. In their last 10 games, Celtic have won just two, exited the Co-operative Insurance Cup and are facing a fight to stay in the Europa League beyond Christmas.
A big opportunity to revive their campaign lies in wait with three home matches on the bounce within eight days. St Mirren visit Celtic Park first on Saturday, followed by Hapoel Tel-Aviv on Wednesday before Aberdeen come calling next weekend.
Those eight days could revive or end Celtic’s hopes on the European front, whilst also proving pivotal in the league and Mowbray is eager for his team to forget their poor form and concentrate on lifting the mood in the camp with three straight wins.
"The very nature of football is that players and managers are going to suffer setbacks frustrations and defeats,” said Mowbray.
"You have got to put it behind you and get back on the training ground. There is always another big game around the corner, and that's the case with us.
"I am sure we will read a lot this week about the opposition trying to feed off any anxiety over our results. The message has to be that we have to all stick together.
"We have three home games coming up in the space of eight days, against St Mirren, Hapoel, and Aberdeen. And we have to try to win them all.
"That's always the target at Celtic, winning matches. We have not done that consistently enough this season, but we will keep working together to find that level of consistency.
"Hopefully, we can get a result against St Mirren and then build on that."
Celtic could be boosted by the return of midfield pair Zheng Zhi and Paddy McCourt for the visit of the Buddies, with both having missed the defeat at Tannadice. Scott Brown is still absent with an ankle injury and will take his seat in the stands alongside Shaun Maloney and goalkeeper Artur Boruc.
"Zheng missed out against Dundee United because of illness but he should be okay for Saturday,” Mowbray explained.
"Paddy had picked up a slight knock as well, but we expect him to be fine, but we'll know more as the week progresses.
"It will probably be a bit too soon for Scott, Artur and Shaun. Of the three, Artur is not too far away.”
Celtic have failed to win in any of their last three matches - all of which were on the road - drawing at Falkirk and Hamburg and losing to Dundee United.
At home, they have only registered three wins from ten games all season, but are undefeated on their own patch in the league. Their last home defeat in the Scottish Premier League was a 4-2 loss to Rangers in August 2008. The last club other than their rivals to win at Parkhead in the league were Motherwell in April 2008.
