Robson sure he can break through at Parkhead
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Your support makes all the difference.The Celtic midfielder Barry Robson is confident he is not set to suffer the fate of his team-mate Derek Riordan and spend his Parkhead career on the sidelines. Riordan criticised the club's manager, Gordon Strachan, over the weekend for his lack of game time since he was signed from Hibernian in June 2006.
Robson, 29, has started only three times under Strachan since arriving from Dundee United in January, making most of his appearances from the bench. However, the former Inverness midfielder is taking a more conciliatory approach to his situation than Riordan. "I knew it was going to be hard," he said. "You have a lot of great players at Celtic and you don't just go straight into the side. You need to know the way the team play, get to know everybody and work your way into the side.
"There is Shunsuke Nakamura and Aiden McGeady here, wide players like myself, and they are two fantastic footballers. But if you get your head down and do it on the pitch then you have every chance.
"You've just got to be confident that you can break into the side and I'm confident I can do that."
Celtic's defeat against Motherwell on Saturday left their Scottish Premier League hopes in tatters.
Leaders Rangers opened up a seven-point gap over them on Sunday by drawing 3-3 with Dundee United at Tannadice and Walter Smith's charges have a game in hand.
Robson, who was at Ibrox as a youngster, still believes the champions can hold on to their title. He said: "I still think we've got a chance. We have been playing well lately, we just haven't been scoring a lot of goals. I know it's going to be tough and I know how good Rangers have been but if we win all our games and win the two Old Firm games at Parkhead, we are still in there fighting.
"There are a lot of twists and turns to come. There is pressure on us but there are pressures wherever you are," Robson added.
"Look at the Gretna players, look how hard it is for them. That is serious pressure because some of them have families.
"But our training has been outstanding. The tackles were flying in – I put a few in myself – but it was enjoyable. Everybody was buzzing and the manager really enjoyed it.
"Nobody likes losing but that's football. You've got to give credit to Motherwell, I thought they did really well and worked hard. But if we had taken our chances we would have won the game.
"Once the goals start coming we will be fine. And if we win every game from now until the end of the season then we have every chance of keeping our title."
McGeady was in broad agreement, believing the loss of form to be down to inefficiency in front of goal and not some wider malaise. "You hear whispers of there not being leadership in the team but I think that's unfair," the 22-year-old said.
"There are many leaders on the park. All these little whispers that you hear have started to come out because we have not being playing well. Nobody was saying that two months ago.
"We have just not being playing well as a team. It's hard to put your finger on one aspect of the game but we have been creating a lot of chances and the ball has just not been going in the back of the net.
"And teams have been coming to Celtic Park and maybe only creating one or two chances and scoring one most of the time, which never used to happen.
"Maybe it's just down to other players not performing on the day but you could never say throughout the team that nobody is trying their hardest.
"Sometimes things don't go for you on the day, maybe your finishing is not great, your crossing is not great, but everyone is trying 100 per cent."
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