Mowbray could afford to smile after his team fought back for a draw

Relieved Celtic manager Tony Mowbray praised the spirit of his players after their dramatic comeback to draw against Rapid Vienna in the Europa League.

Celtic were three goals down after 19 minutes in Vienna but held their nerve to score three in reply, the last a Paul McGowan strike in injury time.

"That performance epitomises our club. We needed to be positive in adversity and we were," said Mowbray.

"The Celtic spirit was there and we worked our way back into the game."

Earlier results in Group C had rendered the match meaningless for both teams in terms of progressing to the last 32 of the Europa League.

And in a group full of surprise results, Hapoel Tel-Aviv's 1-0 victory over Hamburg meant they finished on top of the group.

While Scotland's co-efficient was in need of a boost, the main goal for the Celtic manager was to give fringe players a run-out in the team and maintain confidence levels ahead of the trip to Tynecastle on Sunday in the Scottish Premier League.

"The players have a responsibility to play to a certain level. Those who came in tonight did themselves proud and no harm moving on as part of the squad," said Mowbray, having given 20-year-old Graham Carey his debut as a substitute and rare starts to Niall McGinn, Willo Flood, Paul Caddis and the late goal hero McGowan.

"I think the players are disappointed that, with the chances they created over the 90 minutes, they didn't score more than three goals," added Mowbray.

"We talked before the game that Rapid Vienna would be on the front foot and positive, but the first 10 minutes were not what we wanted, but I prefer to talk about the next 80 and the positive play from our team.

"We created lots of chances and I think deservedly got back into the game.

"We're obviously happy to go from 3-0 down to 3-3. To be fair, we had the majority of chances and we probably could have won it."

We should look positively towards, hopefully, a Champions League campaign next year without much trepidation Celtic manager Tony Mowbray

For the opening period of the match, Celtic were simply overrun and in defence were caught up in a blizzard of Vienna attacks as the snow fell.

Nikica Jelavic helped himself to two goals in eight minutes, the first in 36 seconds, then Hamdi Salihi scored to send the boisterous home support into raptures.

The Celtic boss noted: "They had some very good play. We played in the wrong areas of the pitch for the first few minutes.

"We should have been more direct early on, but they have some very strong and talented footballers and they took advantage of our hesitant start.

"I said to the team at half-time 'I ain't making any changes, you are in the situation you are in and you will dig yourself out of it'.

"They did just that - they drew on each other's strength of character."

Marc-Antoine Fortune scored a blistering winner at Motherwell last weekend and in Vienna came to Celtic's rescue once more with a goal midway through each half, before McGowan restored parity in the 91st minute.

Mowbray added: "As we move on as a team, we should look positively towards, hopefully, a Champions League campaign next year without much trepidation. We have shown that we can play football at a European level."

With involvement in European football over for another season, it's back to domestic matters for Celtic, and an away game against Hearts.

"Sunday is a game that my main focus was on and yet we'll take the spirit of our club from tonight," said Mowbray.

"Hearts are a strong and physical outfit and we have to be mentally and physically ready for that.

"There will be no excuses if we don't go to Tynecastle and find the energy and performance level."

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