Strachan: no blame for Boruc

GORDON STRACHAN could barely bring himself to discuss the bizarre goal which sparked an end to Celtic’s 12-match winning run in the Premier League yesterday.

Goalkeeper Artur Boruc misjudged John Rankin’s 45-yard strike as Hibernian took the lead following a tight 55 minutes.

Colin Nish sealed a 2-0 win when he diverted home another Rankin effort in the 69th minute as Celtic’s lead over Rangers remained four points.

Strachan claimed he had not spoken to Boruc following his blunder, the latest in an uncharacteristically difficult season for the Poland goalkeeper.

Boruc conceded two bad goals in August’s 4-2 defeat by Rangers, the last time Celtic had failed to win an SPL game.

This time he completely missed the ball as he attempted to clutch Rankin’s speculative shot when it bounced in front of him.

Strachan’s only reaction to the goal was that it was “self-explanatory”, instead, the Celtic manager claimed his players should be pleased with themselves. “It’s tough to get beat at any time but there are a lot of players in my dressing room who must be very proud of the way they tried to make sure it didn’t happen,” said Strachan.

Celtic controlled possession in the first half but Hibernian’s central defenders dominated in the air and their central mid-field pairing of Sol Bamba and Steven Thicot broke up play effectively.

While Celtic raised the tempo after Rankin’s opener, Mixu Paatelainen’s side looked relatively comfortable after Nish’s goal.

Meanwhile, Yokohama F Marinos have admitted they will not be signing Celtic midfielder Shunsuke Nakamura in January but hope the Celtic midfielder will return to the club in future.

Club president Masaharu Saito announced following the final J League match of the season that Yokohama will have to wait to sign the Japan international when his Celtic contract expires in June as they cannot afford to pay for him.

On Saturday, Rangers enjoyed their biggest win of the season with a 7-1 thrashing of Hamilton at Ibrox, despite falling behind early on.

“It’s early days and the most important thing is to build on this performance and put a run together,” said striker Kris Boyd.