Gordon Strachan admits the problems his substitutes have caused this season after Georgios Samaras came off the bench to shoot down Motherwell.After Hoops' striker Scott McDonald had taken around 60 seconds to level Chris Porter's 61st minute opener, the former Coventry and Southampton boss threw on the Greece international and Scott Brown for Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink and Shunsuke Nakamura in a bid to snatch a winner.

Samaras - who arrived on loan from Manchester City in January - vindicated Strachan's decision when he dipped his head to meet Barry Robson's 79th minute corner.

Strachan has been booed on several occasions this season after making unpopular substitutions, most recently when he withdrew midfielder Barry Robson against Rangers in the 2-1 home win over the Ibrox men.

The Celtic boss also had a spat with McDonald after the Australia international was unhappy at being replaced in a 1-0 defeat by Motherwell last month.

Alluding to the fact that defender Gary Caldwell has also struggled to win over all the Celtic fans, Strachan quipped: "I'm brave every time I make a substitution.

"I can only get away with doing it to Gary Caldwell.

"But I'm lucky that I have some decent players to do make those substitutions.

"Scott Brown also came on and made the difference but as well as quality, you also need desire and we had that."

McDonald, who scored his 30th goal of the season, is happy to witness Strachan's use of the Parkhead bench from on the pitch.

Asked about his boss' use of substitutions, he retorted: "As long as it's not me coming off - as you've seen.

"We have strengthened since January and it's great that we have players that come off the bench and help us.

"Georgios did tremendously well against Motherwell.

"He will probably be disappointed that he hasn't started more games since coming to Celtic but he is fantastic and gives us competition."

Motherwell manager Mark McGhee made five changes from the side that drew 2-2 with Dundee United at Fir Park last week.

McGhee described the match against Aberdeen next week as the one that is crucial to his side's UEFA Cup aspirations.

The Dons put themselves back in the frame for a UEFA Cup spot with a 2-1 win over Dundee United at Pittodrie.

McGhee said: "Aberdeen is the important game for us. We will have players like Ross McCormack and Simon Lappin back for that."

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