Caretaker manager Graeme Murty was a delighted man at the full time whistle following our demolition of Hamilton Academicals last weekend.
Hosting the side at Ibrox for the Scottish Cup quarter finals, goals from Martyn Waghorn, a Joe Garner hattrick, Jon Toral and Clint Hill took us to a six nil scoreline and booked our place in the semi final draw.
Speaking to the Official Site in his post game press conference, a pleased gaffer explained.
‘Every time we went forward with purpose, we looked like scoring a goal. I thought in the first half, too many times we got stuck in between whether we were going to go or keep the ball, but in the second half, we had that edge that we didn`t necessarily have a little bit earlier. I thought it was just rewards for the hard work they have put in over the last couple of weeks. In the first half, we created good opportunities but hadn`t then sprung forward from the opportunities and been clinical. But I said to the players, we had to take better care of the football, and we had to lock them down a lot better in our press, and I thought in both of those things, we did them very well in the second half. I am delighted and it`s really hard to be objective. I try really hard to be objective when we don`t do the things when we ask, and it`s just as hard now to be level-headed when you get that result. I`m very pleased and pleased for the players more than anything else.’
With Garner getting the hattrick on the day, Murty went on to say that with him spending over ten minutes on the sidelines being treated following a clash of heads, and with calls for a replacement, he was pleased his gamble had paid off.
‘It`s great for him. When he was off the pitch, I heard some calls to get someone on the pitch, but I knew Joe was coming back, and I have to complement our medical team who did a fantastic job for him and got him back as fast as they did. I have to say, the boys who were on the pitch showed a great deal of resilience in keeping them out and being really, really disciplined. We could even have scored another when we were down to 10-men, so I am really pleased for the boys in that respect.’
Another delight from the day for Murty was in seeing the side register the clean sheet and with Hamilton being limited to efforts across the game, he went on to say.
‘As pleasing as the scoreline is, the zero at the end is one that is really big for us. We have struggled to see games out, and you saw the resilience the players showed – they were working for each other and they were making tackles. Clint and Rob were throwing their bodies in the way, and that sets the standard for the way we want to be. Even that said, we can do it better and be better than we were.’
With Jon Toral finding himself on the scoresheet for the first time since he arrived at the club, Murty was pleased for him as well.
‘It`s about time he scored! He said that himself. He has some lovely attributes such as a lovely left foot, and he possibly needs to believe in himself a little bit more in certain situations, but hopefully the goal will give him the confidence he needs to go forward into the next games.’
With Kenny Miller going off at the half time break, Murty went on to say that he wasn’t actually injured, he made the decision to protect him given the fixture list we have at the moment.
‘He`s fine and he`s not actually injured. I just felt three games in a week was a bit much for some of them, and Kenny unfortunately was the guy who missed out. As far as I am concerned, we have to make these decisions, I made it and we are alright with it.’
As for Celtic more specifically in our next Premiership clash.
‘The Old Firm game will take care of itself. You don`t look for anything going into those games. I think we have to make sure we recover the boys properly, get a good week of training in this week, get them prepped, and the game will take care of itself. We have to go and give as good an account of ourselves as we did today.’
