"The performance was worse than the one against Artmedia," he admitted. "I could never see Artmedia scoring a goal, but I could see Clyde scoring. It's been all right for a wee while now, but it has gone downhill the last few hours."
Strachan was at least gracious in defeat, acknowledging that Clyde – who could easily have won by a more handsome margin – thoroughly merited their place in the fourth round draw.
"I wish Clyde all the best. They played with great spirit and deserved their victory," said the Hoops boss.
"Clyde were the best team, they used the conditions well, played with common sense football and we did not.
"We laid the tactics down before the game but they weren't adhered to. The players let themselves down and have to live with that.
"The manner in which we got beaten was disappointing. We think we have answers but we have to look into it even more.
"The start of the game was disappointing. Whatever tactics you use, if you have no crosses, no shots or don't even pressurise the goalkeeper to take some back-passes, then you’ll struggle.
"On the other hand, Clyde used the conditions well. They got crosses in, fired shots in and our keeper had to deal with back-passes." Furious with a calamitous collective performance from his team, Strachan was anxious to ensure that Du Wei – who endured a torrid debut and was substituted at half-time – does not find himself used a scapegoat for shared failings.

He said: "For someone making his debut, we would have liked to have more protection and more cohesion round about him, and [Du Wei] didn't get that. Unfortunately, he was the one who had to suffer."

The Celtic boss was also reluctant to dwell on the contribution of his other debutant, pointing out that the tidy, if subdued, performance of Roy Keane currently ranks as the least of his worries.
"Roy did fine," Strachan said, "but it is very hard to talk about Roy, and I think Roy would be as upset with me talking about him as well because we have a bigger picture than that. "We have to look at ourselves. There were bad decisions on the pitch and probably bad decisions made before the game."

Peter Lawwell, Chief Executive, commented: “Chris has been a magnificent servant to Celtic in the five-and-a-half years he has been here. He has been professional in his dealings and all at Celtic would like to wish him all the best for the future.”

Gordon Strachan added: “It is obviously a huge disappointment to lose a player of Chris’s quality. The club has granted Chris his wish to move on and I would like to wish him all the best for the future.