HAVING seen his side take on a steady succession of challenges both at home and in Europe in recent weeks, Gordon Strachan may well shuffle his pack for tomorrow’s clash with an on-form Falkirk.

“We might do,” said the manager at the pre-match press conference when asked if he would allow some of his players a rest. “I heard Arsene Wenger say that Arsenal’s games have come up quite quickly, that his boys look a bit jaded.

“I don’t think there was anything wrong with our energy against St Mirren. The mental toll of travelling for our games might have been a problem, but I think that if we had scored the first goal at the weekend, that would have been the big thing.

“I put it down to the fact that we didn’t score the first goal, but changing things is something I am going to have to think about.”

The re-scheduled home match tomorrow, Tuesday, December 11, comes hot on the heels of the weekend’s draw with St Mirren at Celtic Park, allowing the players little time to gather breath, let alone prepare for what promises to be a considerable challenge against Falkirk.

The Bairns travel to Celtic Park after two outstanding results in their recent matches against the Saints and high-flying Dundee United, although as Gordon Strachan explained, it is in fact a similar situation as to when the teams first met in the league back in August.

“We’re quite happy that this game has come as quick as it has because we like to win,” said the manager. “We tried to win on Saturday, had enough chances to win and we didn’t win because of a good defensive display from St Mirren.

“And our quality wasn’t good enough in the last quarter of the field and that can happen. But I don’t have a problem with their character, with their work-rate. It was just that on the day, our ability to score goals wasn’t good enough.

“Falkirk were on form the last time we played them,” he continued. “They’d actually won their previous game 4-0, they were feeling good, we were going into that game off the back of a draw and it’s a similar situation this time around.

“It was a good game of football in the end, but we ran out worthy winners.

“Every team has their own style and we have no qualms about that. St Mirren came here on Saturday and played a certain style. A team also came here a while ago and played 5-5 once.

“We had to deal with it and these things are sent to test you in football and so far, in the league and in Europe, we have handled most things. We couldn’t handle it on Saturday, but we will have to do better in the next game.

“I can only ask players to do certain things,” he concluded. “If they try hard enough, if they prepare well enough, if they respect the opposition that’s all you ask for. If their ability is down on the day, I can’t do anything about that.

"You are talking about a team who beat Shakhtar, in a game where they lost a left-back and a centre-half. They were at Tynecastle, didn’t have a problem in the game and ended up drawing in the last minutes.

“You can’t ask any more than that, you can only try your best and I have no question about their commitment.”

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Really need the 3-points here. I'd be happy to see Riordan & Sno get a run out after saving us from defeat at the weekend. If we were to lose tonight we'd only be 2 points clear with the Ger's having two games in hand and an Old Firm game on Janurary 2nd. Nothing less than a win here but Falkirk are a very decent side. John 'Yogi' Hughes has them playing some very attractive football and I'd go as far as saying they are one of the more entertaining side's in the league (big 2 included)

its a must win, rangers are in form and are gaining on us... scotty mcd to get on the scoresheet in a 2-0 win

I'll also say 2-0 with McDonald & McGeady to get the goals

Not wrong with the scorers there mate, but McGeady outshone expectations!

4-0, what a drubbing, and with our best player getting a hattrick (McGeady) and scotty McD getting on the scoresheet in the process, im a happy boy.

Gives us 5 points of breathing room from rangers, but they have 2 games in hand, let's hope they drop some points!

Good result for the Celts - a nice bit of daylight opening up for your boys there if Rangers slip up with their games in hand.

Great result. I was expecting a lot tougher game but McGeady (again) was just unbeleivable. Frightening how much he has came on in the past year. He always had talent but tended to lose the ball too often when trying to beat a man and never had a great deal of pace. Now, he's beating players in their 3's & 4's and is has an extraordinary turn of pace about him now. Also has end product now and chipping in with a few goals to lighten the burden on Skippy.

Vibrant Celtic bounced back from a poor run of league results to sweep aside 10-man Falkirk thanks to an Aiden McGeady hat-trick.

Falkirk had recovered from Scott McDonald's early penalty and twice saw efforts cleared off the line.

McGeady netted in the 41st minute before Falkirk's comeback hopes were dashed when Darren Barr was sent off.

McGeady scored Celtic's third after 67 minutes and completed the rout and his own hat-trick with eight minutes to go.

Celtic cut Falkirk open in the second minute but McDonald over-hit his ball across the face of goal with Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink poised to score.

But the Australian atoned for his error when he won and converted a ninth-minute penalty.

McDonald latched onto McGeady's precision pass, burst down the left flank and was needlessly felled in the box by Kenny Milne.

The former Motherwell striker stepped up to take the resulting penalty and sent Tim Krul the wrong way to notch his 16th goal of the season.

Celtic looked in the mood for more with McGeady pulling the strings in a roving role behind the two strikers.

McDonald spurned a terrific chance to double Celtic's lead when McGeady's clipped cross found him unmarked in the Falkirk box but his attempted header somehow ballooned high away from the target.

Then moments later Krul pushed away Gary Caldwell's powerful low shot as Celtic looked to press home their advantage.

But Falkirk managed to ride out the early storm only one goal behind and began to string some passes together.

And the visitors should have levelled after Mark Brown palmed Pedro Moutinho's low effort into the path of Scott Arfield, but Caldwell produced a tremendous block on the line.

Caldwell again cleared off the line after the Celtic keeper had got a slight touch on a Gerard Aafjes header following Moutinho's corner.

Falkirk appealed for a penalty after the ball struck the full-back on his upper body but referee Dougie McDonald waved play on.

The visitors continued to press and Moutinho shot just over from 25 yards.

However, McGeady grabbed Celtic's second in the 41st minute when the unmarked winger collected McDonald's cutback 15 yards out and fired a left-footed shot in off the post.

Vennegoor of Hesselink saw his header cleared off the line by Milne with the second half barely a minute old.

Barr was red-carded for a second bookable offence after tugging McGeady's jersey in the 64th minute.

Celtic went for the kill and, after Paul Hartley had struck the bar with a thunderous 20-yard strike, McGeady made it 3-0 when he jinked in from the left and curled a low shot beyond Krul.

The Republic of Ireland international rounded off the convincing victory and grabbed his own hat-trick on 82 minutes, finishing off a flowing move from close range.

It was Celtic's first win in four games as they stretched their lead at the top of the Clydesdale Bank Premier League to five points.