Gordon Strachan must have left the scissors at home when he packed for Spain. Facial self-harming was not on the agenda. His relationship with Aiden McGeady may have cooled but he was never going to cut off his nose to spite his face.

Gordon Strachan must have left the scissors at home when he packed a bag for his trip to Spain. Facial self-harming, it seems, was not on the agenda.

The Celtic manager's relationship with Aiden McGeady may have cooled to near Antarctic levels but he was never going to cut off his nose to spite his face.

Strachan's new-found enthusiasm for a squad rotation policy had been given as the official reason for McGeady's omission from the Celtic starting line-up for the recent matches against Aalborg, Kilmarnock and Aberdeen. The player, it seems, sees it differently.

Regardless, it is an irrefutable fact that Celtic are a better team with McGeady in it than with him sitting on the subs bench. His impact after appearing as a replacement last weekend against Aberdeen, where he set up Scott McDonald for his team's second goal in a dazzling cameo performance, helped further buff his credentials.

Strachan has never been one to bow to pressure - be it from the media, the Celtic supporters, or from inside his own dressing room - but the clamour to include McGeady as Celtic looked to fashion a positive result inside El Madrigal had swollen to the stage that it had become impossible for even this most obdurate of managers to ignore.

In many ways it was a no-lose situation for Strachan. If McGeady performed well and Celtic emerged with a point or better then the manager could sit back and accept the plaudits.

If the winger was less effective, the McGeady cheerleaders would be silenced and Strachan would be vindicated by his recent decisions to leave the player out. As is often the case, what transpired fell somewhere in the middle.

There was little sign of McGeady wreaking the sort of havoc that had helped dismantle Livingston and Aberdeen in recent weeks although few teams in Scotland, or anywhere in the world in fact, have a full-back of the calibre of Joan Capdevila, a European Championship winner with Spain this summer.

If McGeady's inclusion had been expected, his role within a new-look Celtic formation was something of a surprise. The anticipated 4-5-1 was tickled to become more of a 4-2-3-1 that saw McGeady thrust wide on the right, Shaun Maloney take up position on the other side flank, and Shunsuke Nakamura deployed as a second striker behind Georgios Samaras.

Another away defeat will suggest it was a system that failed to spark but, the result aside, there was plenty to admire in both the boldness and inventiveness shown by Strachan. It would have been more straightforward to have included Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink from the start and simply thrashed a succession of high, hopeful balls in his direction.

Instead, Celtic chose to utilise pace and passing to feet rather than merely maintaining a physical presence and defending desperately for 90 minutes.

Only the quality of the opposition stifled its execution, with Celtic unable to get regularly beyond the impenetrable wall of yellow jerseys. The fluency of the system meant the attacking midfield three regularly swapped positions but it ultimately made little difference with the visitors pushed increasingly further back into defence by the relentless determination of the Spaniards.

By the time Maloney was substituted he was effectively operating as a second left full-back. It meant Samaras often found himself isolated in attack but his mobility and willingness to accept the ball both to feet and in the air marked him out as a better option than Vennegoor of Hesselink for this kind of system.

A rare profligate moment denied him a goal that could have shepherded Celtic towards that elusive Champions League away win but it was the only black mark in an otherwise impressive showing from the Greek. Expect a reprisal of the role at Old Trafford later in the campaign. For McGeady, relief at his re-inclusion was soon replaced with frustration. An early attempt to burst past Capdevila saw him rudely stopped in his tracks - the ball was instantly recycled towards the Celtic goal - while a flashing right-foot shot that drifted narrowly wide was his most productive contribution to a first-half display that struggled to get out of first gear.

The second half, with McGeady out on his preferred left wing and away from that pesky Capdevila, saw a marked improvement, with the Republic of Ireland winger finally able to supply his centre-forward with better service.

Ultimately, though, it was not to be his night. Neither was it Celtic's.