Joe Ledley focused on three fronts for Celtic

By LISA GRAY
Published on 29/01/2013 01:45

JOE Ledley has urged Celtic to put their Scottish Communities League Cup disappointment behind them and focus on what they can still achieve this season.

The midfielder was devastated when the Hoops were dumped out by St Mirren in Sunday’s semi-final clash at Hampden. The shock 3-2 defeat cost them a meeting with Hearts in the final and ended any hopes of a domestic treble this season.

But, having already booked their place in the last 16 of the Champions League, and with another Clydesdale Bank Premier League title looking likely, Ledley knows there is still plenty to look forward to.

He said: “We’ve got the SPL, the Champions League and the other cup as well. We just need to concentrate on those, take it game by game and rebuild and go again.

“We’ve had a fantastic achievement already to get into the last 16 of the Champions League and hopefully we can get a fantastic result against Juventus and go from there.We know it’s going to be difficult but hopefully we can achieve it.”

Celtic had been strong favourites ahead of the cup tie but Saints drew first blood when Esmael Goncalves scored on his debut. Gary Hooper levelled just before the break but Charlie Mulgrew conceded a spot-kick, which was tucked away by Paul McGowan, before Steven Thompson struck for the Paisley club. Mulgrew netted with what proved to be the last kick of the ball, as Celtic left it far too late to rescue the tie.

Ledley said: “We are devastated as a team. It wasn’t a good performance at all from us. It was a sore one for us and we just didn’t get going. I’m not too sure why that was the case.

“We will probably watch the video again and see what happened. We were unlucky again but we need to punish teams from the off.”

As well as Mulgrew’s penalty miss, Hooper and Georgios Samaras both saw efforts hit the woodwork. The Welshman added: “If you look at it now, it just wasn’t our day. On another day, maybe it would have happened. But we can’t make excuses. We just weren’t good enough.”

Manager Neil Lennon was furious with the result and accused his players of “behaving like spoiled kids” in his post-match briefing.

Ledley said: “He was devastated just like us. He told us he wasn’t happy with the performance and the individuals. We just need to pick ourselves up.”