McGeady: I was so low - Celtic ace tells of his torment with Strachan

By Stephen Mcgowan for MailOnline Updated: 18:46 EST, 27 July 2009

Aiden McGeady broke his silence on the blazing row with Gordon Strachan which came close to destroying his Celtic career.

The winger's Parkhead future was placed in grave doubt last December when a dressing room bust-up with his former manager made banner headlines.

The screaming match between the two followed a game against Hearts and earned the 23-year-old a two-week suspension, plus a £30,000 fine. Forced into an apology before being restored to the team, McGeady describes the incident as a 'low point' in his career.

Relieved to see Tony Mowbray replace Strachan during the summer, the Republic of Ireland star admitted: 'When you get a new manager, it's always going to be a new start. It's a new start for all the players, not just myself.

'After what happened between me and the old gaffer last season, I'm glad to have a new start.

'As anyone could imagine, what happened wasn't great. It was just one of those things which can happen in football. But it was a real low point.

'I'll just look to learn from it. In football, you have to try to take something positive from everything.

'You could say it was avoidable but everything in life is avoidable if you want to look at it like that. But with the way things panned out, it wasn't.'

McGeady sat on the bench for Sunday's Wembley Cup clash with an expensively-assembled Spurs as the Parkhead side captured the trophy and edged European Champions Barcelona into the runners-up spot thanks to a 2-0 win.

Striker Chris Killen bagged his fourth goal of preseason with an emphatic first-half header, before Georgios Samaras added to Mowbray's selection dilemma with a superb solo goal before half-time.

Mowbray kept McGeady and his other big guns in reserve ahead of the first leg Champions League tie with Dynamo Moscow.

Expressing his first impressions of the new manager, McGeady added: 'The gaffer comes across as a good guy with good morals. The coaching staff have been great so far and the training has been good.

'He gets his points across and all the boys have been very happy with the way things have gone.'

Celtic's newly-shaped side will receive their sternest test against the Russians after just four warm-up games.

McGeady says he has been 'impressed' by what new signings Marco Fortune and Landry N'Guemo have shown. 'I've been really impressed with Landry and Marco,' the winger said. 'Landry played really well against Cardiff, especially as he likes to get on the ball and pass to feet right away. He doesn't play it sideways. He likes to move it forward with pace.

'Marco has also looked sharp and played well against Al-Ahly. We did well in that game, although after the first couple of minutes, we couldn't get the ball off them and I thought: "Here we go, a doing at Wembley".

'But we found our stride, played some good stuff and scored a few goals.'