Celtic manager Gordon Strachan would be happy with his side turning in the same performance against Motherwell twice in eight days - even though the Clydesdale Bank Premier League champions lost 1-0 to the Steelmen last Saturday.

A Simon Lappin goal gave Mark McGhee's men a shock win at Parkhead and added to Celtic's current woes.

One victory in seven matches has seen Strachan's men crash out of Europe and the Scottish Cup and fall seven points behind SPL leaders Rangers, who have a game in hand.

But ahead of Sunday's trip to Fir Park, Strachan said: "Our performance wasn't good enough last week to win so I don't know if the same performance will be good enough this week.

"But if the players put the same effort in and make the same amount of chances, with their crossing and passing, that will be all right by me.

"Our only concern is not scoring the amount of goals that we think our football deserves.

"It's far harder to reproach yourself for the performance when the performance was enough to win many a game.

"Training has been good, we've enjoyed it all week. I always get a good reaction whether we win lose or draw.

"But any reaction would only be to the result, not the performance."

Strachan put his side's recent results down to "freak circumstances" and, as in recent weeks, he trotted out a set of statistics to back up his theory.

He said: "In the five games we have played recently, the total attempts on target from our opponents has been six, possibly seven.

"For Motherwell's goal last week, Artur Boruc saved the first shot and the other guy put it in, so that can be one or two shots, whatever you want.

"If you count it as one shot, then that's six shots against us in five games. People will say that's only statistics but people throw statistics against us.

"Three of the shots went into the net, which means Artur has only had three saves to make in five games.

"If you had a defensive coach, he would be more than happy with that. It's just freaky circumstances at the moment.

"The big statistic is not scoring enough goals but we are good enough to know that once we start scoring goals then you will look at the performances as being terrific."

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