Celtic coach Gordon Strachan has leapt to the defense of China international Du Wei after the defender endured a turbulent debut in the club's shock 2-1 Tennent's Scottish Cup defeat at the hands of Clyde on Sunday.

After several impressive reserve team outings, Du, who should learn later this week whether or not the Bhoys are willing to offer him a permanent move from Shanghai Shenhua, was handed his firstsenior start by Strachan for the clash at Broadwood.

However, with Celtic spectacularly failing to match their First

Division opponents, the 23-year-old struggled to contain Clyde's rampaging forwards before being replaced by Adam Virgo at halftime.

Despite Du's earlier than expected exit, his manager was quick to point out that the entire team should shoulder the responsibility for the young star's below par performance.

"Clyde were the better team. They used the conditions well. They played common-sense football and we didn't," Strachan said to the BBC.

"For someone (Du) making his debut we would have liked to have more protection and more cohesion round about him and he did not get that.

"Unfortunately, he was the one that had to suffer."

Celtic, flying high in the Scottish Premier League, were, somewhat surprisingly, always on the back foot against a Clyde side that took the lead when Craig Bryson converted an Eddie Malonecross just after the half hour mark.

Du then conceded a 35th minute penalty when he hauled down TomBrighton. Artur Boruc expertly saved Stephen O' Donnell's spot kickbut, from the resulting corner, Malone superbly volleyed home Clyde's second of the afternoon.

Celtic, with Japan midfielder Shunsuke Nakamura playing particularly well, never really threatened Peter Cherrie's goal and a late Maciej Zurawski strike proved to be merely a consolation for the Glasgow giants on an afternoon that well and truly belonged to Graham Roberts' charges.