Celtic’s Matt O’Riley opens up on why partnership with Tom Rogic shouldn't be an issue and Hibs’ loanee Sylvester Jasper

A trip to face Hibs at Easter Road is all-new for Celtic midfielder Matt O’Riley.

So is facing the brickbats that come with failure, plenty flying around as a result of the 5-1 aggregate Conference League play-off exit against Bodo/Glimt. A grizzly outcome that resulted from the 2-0 loss for Ange Postecoglou’s side in Norway. Until the first leg 3-1 home loss to Kjetil Knutsen’s team, the 21-year-old had earned only commendations since his £1.5million move from MK Dons in January. However the ease with which Bodo/Glimt were able to play through Celtic has raised concerns the attacking nature of Tom Rogic and O’Riley leaves them too open if the pair are deployed as playmakers in a central three. The Londoner isn’t having that.

“Good players can play with good players and the defensive side of things comes down to more than just two players,” O’Riley said. “We’ve only started two games together and it’s been against, arguably, the best team we’ve faced this season. So it’s never going to be easy. If we started with a different midfield, it could have been worse – or better. It comes down to more than that. As a team, we just weren’t good enough, on or off the ball. We got picked off at times. And even though we lost, I still felt we showed enough to get more.

“There were numerous factors to it. In the league, we’re used to teams who sit deep against us – they all play a similar way. Bodo were different because they were more expansive. When they were able to beat our press, they looked dangerous on the counter attack. That was a new challenge for us to deal with and it’s where they really punished us. They were clinical going forward. We didn’t play our best at Celtic Park but I still don’t think it was a 3-1 game. It felt