Celtic star Colby Donovan says he and his teammates did not give an accurate account of themselves during Sunday's Old Firm hammering at the hands of Rangers.
Donovan was actually one of the few who showed some desire in that derby game. In truth, his actual performance was not particularly great, but he did look like a player who was ready and willing to battle, unlike his 10 teammates, who were soft and lacked any kind of fight.
Whether you want to look at performances or the spirit shown on the day, the Hoops fell well short of expectations. That's something they are going to have to put right both in Thursday night's Europa League opener against Ferencvaros and in Sunday's Old Firm rematch in the league at Celtic Park.
Celtic also have to correct that Champions League collapse against LASK, which was their last European performance, adding to a reputation of bottling big occasions.
"We know what happened in the Champions League, it’s not great for us,” Donovan told reporters.
“But we know the Europa League is a big competition. Last year there were a lot of games I played in, a lot of experience I got in this competition. We’re hoping this year we can go far and hopefully do better than we did last year.
“You never want to get beat off your fierce rivals. That’s not a Celtic team, that wasn’t us on Sunday. It wasn’t a great on our side, it hurt a lot, but you’ve got to put that aside now.
“That’s a good thing about being in Europe. When there are bad moments that happen you’ve got a game every three days, so you’ve got a chance to get back on track.
“We take a big ownership of and we know we weren’t at our best. [Ferencvaros] is a huge game for us and we know we need to repay the fans. We just want to put a real marker down and get us building again.”
Donovan has played very well overall this season, filling in for Alistair Johnston and doing surprisingly well. The 20-year-old has ensured the loss of Johnston through injury has not been as big as it might have been, which has been a huge help for O'Neill.
But while fighting talk and promises to put things right are all well and good, Celtic are going to have to start proving themselves with actions in these big games.
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