Celtic boss Gordon Strachan will not be asking for help from the rest of the SPL after defeat at Ibrox left his team six points behind Rangers.Kevin Thomson's first goal for the Light Blues since signing from Hibernian 14 months ago was enough to beat the champions, and with nine games remaining - one more than Celtic - the tide has turned firmly in the favour of Walter Smith's side, although there are still two Old Firm games to be played at Parkhead.

Strachan admitted his side could not afford to drop any more points in the run-in but he will not be encouraging other sides to do them a favour.

"It's not Alex Ferguson you are talking to here," said Strachan. "I'm not going to play those mind games with everybody else because they will turn it on you.

"Nobody does you any favours in this game, none whatsoever, trust me.

"We have put ourselves in the position that we are in. We have to hope that somebody else does something for us to become champions and it's a horrible position to be in.

"It's better winning things by your own merit rather than banking on someone else.

"It is going to be very difficult (to keep the title). But we have two Old Firm games at home and if we play like we did in the first half then we have a chance.

"If we defend like we did today and Rangers get another chance then it could be a problem."

Since Walter Smith returned to Ibrox to take over from Paul Le Guen in January 2007, Celtic have played Rangers four times without scoring a goal against the Ibrox side - far less taking a point.

The champions had been the better side in the first half but found themselves a goal down just before the break.

There was only a minute remaining when Thomson played a one-two with Jean-Claude Darcheville before firing past Hoops keeper Artur Boruc.

The Celtic boss explained his poor record against Smith, saying: "Well, they were better in two of those games and in the first game in the sequence, and in this game, we didn't take our chances and that came back to bite us.

"The more balanced people, those without an agenda, would say that we deserved to take something from the game and on a good day we would have got more.

"I thought to myself in the first half, 'this is good, I like what I see'. We were composed, we were brave and for a team that is chasing their rivals, we put up a right good showing.

"But I've learned that the first goal in these games is important and the goal changed the game, that's for sure.

"We were one-dimensional in the second half, that is something we must learn about because it is easy to defend against that."

Strachan added: "I haven't got a problem with the players.

"If you go through the team, Hinkel had a good game, Caldwell did well, apart from one pass. Boruc had a good save and the two front men (Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink and Georgios Samaras) gave them problems.

"I think that's the best our wider men, (Aiden McGeady and Shunsuke Nakamura) have been as a partnership in a game against Rangers.

"So we had a lot of very good things going for us."

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