Maloney guards against complacency
Celtic starlet Shaun Maloney has warned his team-mates to expect a Rangers backlash later this month.
The youngster’s stunning 30-yard strike inspired their 2-0 Old Firm win at Parkhead last night to book a place in the CIS Insurance Cup semi-finals at the holders’ expense.
A poor Rangers performance piled more pressure on their under-fire manager Alex McLeish, who remained defiant following the game.
He is still planning for the second part of the Old Firm double-header in the Bank of Scotland Premier League at Parkhead in nine days’ time.
McLeish’s fate lies in the hands of Rangers chairman David Murray but whoever is in charge, Maloney predicts they will be fired up for revenge next time around.
“We are obviously going to be very confident,” said the Scotland striker.
“I don’t think there was a great difference between the teams and up until the incident when Sotirios Kyrgiakos was dismissed it was a tight game.
“We’ll definitely go into the next game confident as we did going into this one.
“But it’s going to be a tough game and they’ll obviously want revenge after this result.
“It’s a big result for us and there’s pressure on the other side.
“But we know it’s going to be tough in the next one and we’ll have to be careful that we don’t concede and keep it tight like we did. Hopefully we will get the result.”
After the dismissal of Greek defender Kyrgiakos, a Klos own goal late on sealed Rangers’ fate but Maloney admitted his strike was among the best in his career so far.
“It must be up there,” he said. “Just for the occasion alone.
“When you strike it you know you’ve struck it right but there is a bit of luck involved as well. When I looked up it had hit the back of the net.”
Maloney revealed encouragement from manager Gordon Strachan inspired his wonder goal.
He added: “The manager has been drumming it into me to hit the ball more often and fortunately enough when I did it hit the back of the net.”
Maloney was named man of the match but he believes he can still get better.
He concluded: “If I was honest, for the first 15 to 20 minutes I didn’t really get involved.
“I didn’t do much for that time but after the goal it really settled me a lot and in the second half I got better.
“When they went a man down there was more space but early on I wasn’t having one of my better games.”
