Celtic assistant manager John Collins expects his side to bounce back against Inverness at the weekend, following their 2-1 Europa League loss to Ajax last night.
The Hoops travel to the Caledonian Stadium as they look to extend their lead at the top of the Scottish Premiership.
Ronny Deila’s side are currently six points ahead of second placed Hearts, having amassed 36 points from 15 games.
Collins, who himself played for Celtic and later Everton as a midfielder, expects his team to bounce back against John Hughes’ side and has urged the players to focus on the next game.
Speaking in his pre-match press conference, Collins said: “I’ve been in the game a long time and the reality is you have to focus on the next game and next training session.
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“When you lose games you’re always going to get criticised and that’s the nature of the business.
“I have no doubt we can bounce back. Throughout every game there have been positives but we’ve been punished for our errors.”
Collins feels that the Scottish sides who come up against Celtic treat it as a cup final and this makes it harder to beat them.
"It’s their cup final. Where ever we go it’s the opponents’ cup final.”
The Celtic assistant manager was also keen to highlight the lack of transfer funds at the disposal of Deila.
“We know we don’t have £100m so we have to learn and develop players. There’s a fun side and a frustrating side to that.”
Reflecting on last night’s loss to Ajax, Collins rued his side’s missed chances and underlined that the games at the highest level are decided by fined margins.
“We created a lot of chances and looked more likely to score the winning goal but didn’t take our chances.
“That’s what happens when you’re playing at a high level of football. It’s fine margins.”
