Brendan Rodgers tells Celtic they have 'long way to go' in key area as 'wonderful' Francis Turley singled out

Brendan Rodgers has told his Celtic troops they are miles off it in the pressing department.

The Hoops boss watched on as his champions ran out 6-4 winners against Queen's Park in the ten goal pre-season thriller in Mount Florida. Kyogo Furuhashi followed up his Ayr United penalty with a hat-trick during his hour on the pitch while the returning Matt O'Riley also got on the scoresheet as did youngster Francis Turley - who really caught the eye of the Hoops manager.

Despite running out winners on the night, Rodgers was left less than impressed with his players on the pressing element of their game in the first 45 minutes and made that clear at the half-time break. Despite that being one low point of the performance the boss was still pleased with other elements in the game and particularly with the young players who took to the field as they look to make an impression on the top team. It's now just over a week of preparation at home before Celtic head for the USA to play three matches with DC United, Manchester City and Chelsea before the season opener with Kilmarnock in early August.

Asked if he was happy with the performance, Rodgers told Celtic TV: "Some bits of it. As I said it is about fitness but also there was lots of elements of the first half I wasn't happy with. Especially with some of the guys who should understand the game better. Our pressing was nowhere near a level of what I would expect and that is what we said at half time.

"In the first 15 minutes we pressed the game better than we did in all of the 45 minutes. That continued in the second half. You expect some little mistakes and unfortunate things to happen in the game but overall you see we still have a long, long way to go with the pressing side of