Bhoys boss Strachan keeps focus on prickly Cally Thistle test

CELTIC manager Gordon Strachan is refusing to treat the visit of Inverness Caledonian Thistle as a warm-up for their crucial Champions League game against Manchester United next week.

Celtic are 15 points clear of Rangers, Hearts and Aberdeen at the top of the Bank of Scotland Premier League and odds-on to overcome the Highlanders today for an 11th straight league win.

Next Tuesday, however, the Hoops face a different challenge in the Champions League where they probably need to take at least a point against United to progress to the knockout stages for the first time.

Celtic are second in Group F behind Alex Ferguson’s men, two points ahead of Benfica and FC Copenhagen with games against the Red Devils at home and the Danes away still to come.

However, Strachan rejected the notion that the European stage takes precedence and insists his players are of similar mind.

He said: “The Inverness game is not preparation (for United) at all. I keep saying my priority is the championship, Europe is a bonus.

“There’s a glow of satisfaction about the way we are playing in the league but there is no excitement.

“Nobody has mentioned Manchester United to be honest with you and that’s good.

“I will pick my team for Inverness and it will be the best team that I can pick. We will look after the United game as soon as we are finished the Inverness match.”

Inverness are one of only two teams to take points off the champions this season in a 1-1 draw at the Tulloch Caledonian Stadium in August.

However, the Highlanders will have rookie goalkeeper Michael Fraser making only his second SPL start as replacement for regular number one Mark Brown who was sent off against Hibernian last week.

“There’s no revenge mission,” Strachan added. “If they drew with us up there then they deserved it and you can’t take that away from them.

“But we shouldn’t be upset about it, we should just go and play and hopefully we have enough in our locker to win the game.

“We respect them, that’s for sure. I watched them at Hibs last week and Inverness made it very hard for them.

“But it doesn’t matter if it’s Inverness or anyone else, we just want to keep our run going.

“And we will not speak about the goalkeeper to be honest. There’s other guys in their team that we will speak about, but it’s not so much about individuals, it’s about their team because they are a good team.

“So I wouldn’t expect a goal-fest tomorrow, I don’t think that will happen.”