CELTIC manager Ronny Deila was heavily critical of the Hampden pitch and said it stopped his team passing the ball well as they won the first Old Firm game in nearly three years.

 

Celtic had Rangers by the throat, 2-0 up thanks to Leigh Griffiths and Kris Commons goals in the first 30 minutes, but there was no further scoring and Deila said his players struggled to pass the ball as the pitch cut up during the League Cup semi-final. The Hampden surface had deteriorated during Saturday's semi-final and both teams struggled with it yesterday.

"We wanted to attack more but I have to make the excuse as well that we are a passing team and we had no chance to pass the ball on that pitch," said Deila, who is through to his first final in Scotland against Dundee United on March 15. "That's not how a semi-final in the Scottish League Cup should be. It's very hard to entertain our fans. If you are going to develop Scottish football you need pitches you can play football on. If you are going to go four or five months with poor pitches all over the country then every game will be in the air. This is the national team's stadium, it has to be much better. So it makes it very, very hard for the players. Skill needs good pitches, it's more fun to watch. So this, in my opinion, was not good enough."

Rangers faced a heavy defeat but they improved and Celtic did not go for the jugular in the second half. Deila had not told his men to sit on their lead, he said. "I said to go for three. We didn't manage that. We wanted to really go and just kill the game. But we killed it another way, we were solid at the back and kept them away from the goal. It was a very good day. There was an unbelievable atmosphere in the stadium. The players were unbelievably focused and performed very well, I'm proud of them. I think 2-0 was a fair result." He said Craig Thomson had made "a clear mistake" by not playing advantage when Griffiths was through again in the first half. Celtic will attempt to make at least one signing before the transfer window closes tonight.

Caretaker manager Kenny McDowall said the pitch had been unhelpful for Rangers too. He had feared a heavy defeat after the second goal. "There is always that part of it but what you're thinking is how to get back into the game. I thought the change we made [bringing Jon Daly on at half-time] certainly helped get us up the park a bit. I was disappointed on the goals we gave away, especially the first one coming to so early. That flung a spanner in the works. It unsettled people which made the first half a bit sticky and difficult. After making the change at half time I thought we did far better in the second half. We just could not get the goal to make it interesting."