..AND DON'T WE KNOW IT; Aid: Hapoel should never have beaten us.

Byline: NEIL CAMERON 

AIDEN McGEADY last night claimed Celtic should have never been beaten by a team who are nowhere near their level.

The winger and the rest of Tony Mowbray's side were left shame-faced after going down 2-1 in Israel despite taking a first-half lead.

To add further disgrace Celtic could have even lost by an even greater margin as Hapoel turned up the heat in the second half.

But McGeady doesn't believe the Israelis are anywhere near his own team's level of ability - an opinion that makes the defeat even harder to take.

The Republic of Ireland star said: "We never really got going, not at all. I didn't know what to expect from them but they keep the ball well.

"However, we should have been able to hold the game or close it out with us being 1-0 up. But we didn't.

"When we came out for the second half we found it tough to get the ball for the first 20-25 minutes. That's the way I felt anyway.

"I thought they had all the ball, were creating the chances while we never got going. Then they scored and got the momentum - that's the way it went.

"We've got better quality than Hapoel, although we didn't show it on the night. We didn't pass the ball well enough, didn't control the ball and didn't create loads of chances either.

"I don't know what more to say except we didn't even get into first gear against Hapoel."

Although Celtic have three home games to look forward to they could be just one game away from disaster.

If Mowbray's team lose to Rapid Vienna, who destroyed Bundesliga leaders Hamburg 3-0, in two weeks at Parkhead then you'd get long odds on them finishing in the top two places.

Potential

But McGeady said: "The good thing is it was only the first game of the group, so we've got five games to go and five chances to do better. I'd definitely fancy ourselves against Hapoel at home.

"Rapid are a decent team as they've already put Aston Villa out. The draw is not the easiest draw for us because they're all tough opponents.

"We thought Hapoel would be the easiest team to play against but on the basis of that game it doesn't look like it.

"That was maybe more down to the fact we played at 50 or 60 per cent of our potential - if that.We did okay in defence but just didn't do enough getting forward."

McGeady and his team-mates were still dripping with sweat a good few hours after the final whistle as they negotiated security at Ben Gurion International Airport.

But with the fitness and conditioning of modern-day players, could the 80-degree heat be used as an excuse? McGeady didn't think so. He added: "They were ridiculous temperatures to play in and all the players felt sapped of energy. So it was tough.

"But we can't really make excuses for that. We just should have been better on the night."

In fairness to McGeady at least he showed in flashes the skills which he has come to be known for, even if he faded badly as the game wore on.

He was booked at the end of the first half after squaring up to Avihay Yadin who committed a bad foul on the Celtic wide-man as he was about to tear in on goal.

The Israeli was yellow-carded but on a second viewing of the incident he may have been fortunate not to see red.

McGeady said:"That's why I got so annoyed because the first guy had a bite at me and then the second guy just totally wiped me out when I was clean through after beating two players.

"It was just cynical. I don't think one of our players would have done that to them in the same circumstances."

CAPTION(S):

YAD TO WORSE: McGeady is scythed down by Yadin