Inside the on field Celtic crisis meeting after Champions League howler as Alistair Johnston what was really said

Alistair Johnston knows there’s always been a demand for Celtic to play with a certain swashbuckling style.

The Canadian might not be aware though that legendary chairman Sir Robert Kelly in the 50s and 60s took it a step further by brining a bonus scheme for players if he felt the fans had been entertained. Playing the famous Celtic Way is in the club’s DNA but Johnston reckons the mantra needs a bit of a tweak when it comes to the Champions League. It’s more about finding another way when it comes to picking up points at the elite level.

But Johnston doesn’t think shifting style is an affront to the club’s ethos. In fact, the all action defender is convinced the other attributes needed when going up against the big boys is exactly the right way. Celtic had to show a few sides to their game the other night against Club Brugge. They had to hang tough in a first half where things were not going to plan. On another day they might have crumbled. That’s what happened on that dreadful seven goal drubbing in Dortmund earlier in the campaign.

But this is a different Celtic to the one left bashed and bruised by Borussia. It’s made of much tougher stuff now and they showed it again on Wednesday. The Hoops held firm, sorted it out and battled back to claim a point against the Belgians that could have been all three given the late push.

A draw was by no means a disaster and Johnston insisted it’s further evidence this Celtic side mean business in the Champions League. He said: “We talked about it after the (Dortmund) match. It’s such a cliche, but if you learn from it then maybe it’s not the worst thing for you.

“I do actually think we’ve learned from it. You saw in the Atalanta match we were really comfortable sitting in a