With some joy and relief from the midweek RB Salzburg match where Celtic secured progression through the Europa League group stage despite losing, manager Brendan Rodgers’ side registered back to back defeats at the weekend when paired with the Hibernian tie.
The hosts at Easter Park opened the scoring in the first minute and they tied their advantage up just ahead of the hour mark and we had no reply despite edging possession and having greater chances on the day.
Whether the Europa League clash took a bit too much out of us, is open for debate but goalkeeper Craig Gordon said post-game that the players had to shoulder the loss and more importantly, if they didn’t ‘step up’ quickly now they should expect to be replaced.
Speaking to Sky Sports he explained.
“The guys that are here have to step up and make sure they are in the manager’s plans, especially leading up to January. So it is up to us to make sure our performances are good because at a club this big if your performances are not up to scratch for a period of time then you can get replaced. We need to make sure we are working hard to stay in the team and deliver what the manager, the club and the fans want.”
Gordon did also take the opportunity to say that for him, nobody could use the midweek European game as an excuse as the performance itself just wasn’t good enough full stop and they just had to look at themselves.
With Motherwell on Wednesday evening, the expectation will be all three points and a response.