Strachan had stressed the only thing missing from his side's play in recent weeks was goals and was rewarded for his patience when his side chalked up a convincing win in Lanarkshire to set them up for Wednesday's Old Firm clash at Celtic Park.

Victory closed the gap to SPL leaders Rangers to four points, and although the Ibrox side have two games in hand, the champions have the chance to put the pressure on with a win at Celtic Park in midweek.

The Celtic boss could not resist having a dig at media and disgruntled Celtic fans, whose criticism reached a peak after last week's 1-0 home defeat by Motherwell.

"Someone said that was a great performance. I had to remind them it was a totally committed performance, which was fantastic, and we finished," said Strachan.

"That just shows you what goals can do. It can turn a fully committed - and I'm delighted with the commitment - into a great performance.

"I have to use my eyes and be above emotion. I told the players they are doing a lot of things right.

"I know you don't like it, but you'll have to put up with it.

"I can show you we had far more chances last week and played far better football. Their goalie had more saves, but we didn't score.

"That is football and I have said all along that goals are the most important statistic."

"I've no idea if the players were stung by criticism. It doesn't come up in my conversation.

"It's not worth my while. Who is criticising them? Is it worth listening to? I'd never use that for them. They are more intelligent than that."

"We can breathe a bit easier and not go away scratching our heads," Strachan added. "That's what we've done after the last five games where we have been wondering what more we could do to win a game of football."

Asked if his side's title hopes were still alive, Strachan said: "I hope so.

"It would be nice to continue the league and make it more interesting."

Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink silenced the critics that have been on his back in recent months by grabbing a double in an impressive performance.

Stephen McManus and Scott McDonald also notched for the visitors with Wells' consolation strike coming when McManus helped a Ross McCormack shot into his own net.

And Motherwell manager Mark McGhee felt his side played better in defeat than they had done when they won 1-0 at Parkhead last week.

The former Celtic striker insisted the difference in the quality of set-pieces was the main change this time around.

"I thought we played a lot better this week than we did last week," McGhee said.

"We matched them in every area of the field, I thought our shape was fine and a lot of our attacking play was fine.

"There were a lot of things I was quite pleased about and positive about.

"I thought we were well in the game and lost from set-pieces.

"We had as many corners and set-pieces as them but Nakamura and Barry Robson's quality was the difference.

"Every time they looked as if they might score, and although we were beaten by the better team, that was the reason we lost by that margin."

The Fir Park side remain in third place and McGhee is still targeting a UEFA Cup place.

He said: "If we beat Aberdeen, Dundee United and Hibs then I think we will finish in third place."