IT was a night that began with much optimism but ended in bitter disappointment as Celtic lost 4-1 at home to Sparta Prague in the Europa League.

Scott Brown admitted that it was a performance that fell way below the standards that have been set at the club over the past few seasons, and it was one that he and his team-mates took full responsibility for.

On the back of a good showing in France last week, where the Hoops drew 2-2 with Lille, following that up with a strong display in Sunday’ Scottish Cup semi-final win over Aberdeen at Hampden, hopes were high that the team could take all three points from the first part of their double-header against Sparta Prague.

But it was the Czech side who prevailed on the night, scoring two goals in either half for what proved, in the end, to be a comfortable win.

“When you look at the performance last Sunday, we were very good, but we were very sloppy last night,” said the Celtic captain. “We need to make sure we’re better throughout the whole park, that we work harder, we fight more, we’re stronger on the ball, we create more chances and we defend better as a team.

“For us, it was nowhere near the standards that we’ve set at this club, and especially over the last 13 years that I’ve been here. It’s not acceptable. We started off not too badly, but then we lost a goal and I think everyone’s heads just went down from there. We didn’t recover well and we didn’t play as well as we know we can do.

“But we know it’s our responsibility to bounce back now and we need to make sure we do that extremely quickly because we’ve got a game coming up on Sunday.”

The focus for Neil Lennon’s squad now shifts to their Premiership clash with Motherwell at Fir Park this weekend, and the need to take all three points ahead of a break in domestic football for the latest round of international fixtures.

And Scott Brown knows that, while the pressure will be on the team following their Europa League defeat, it’s important the Hoops get back to winning ways at the weekend.

“Every week we owe the supporters a performance, but Thursday night wasn’t one of those nights,” he said. “We could say that we’ve given the supporters what they wanted and they’ve had a lot of fantastic times, but we need to make sure that those fantastic times continue, and we know that’s not the standard we set or accept at this club.

“The message to the fans is that we’ll fight, we’ll scratch and we’ll make sure we bounce back. Sunday, for us, is huge now and we have to make sure we put in a good performance and get three points.”

Scott Brown: It's our responsibility to get back to winning ways