IT had been a challenging build-up to the Glasgow derby for Neil Lennon, with a number of first-team players ruled out of the fixture.

James Forrest was already missing through injury, and Chris Jullien was also ruled out, while Nir Bitton, Hatem Elhamed, Odsonne Edouard and Ryan Christie were all unavailable for selection – the first three following positive tests for coronavirus while on international duty, and Christie forced to self-isolate despite a number of negative tests.

But despite those absentees, the Celtic manager was disappointed that the team he did select was not able to continue the unbeaten start to the Premiership campaign, with goals in either half from Conor Goldson giving Rangers a 2-0 victory.

“It was disappointing to lose the two goals in the way we did, and while we didn’t have a clutch of chances, we did have some good chances that we didn’t take and that, in essence, is the game in a nutshell,” Neil Lennon said.

“We went a goal down. It was poor from us, and we should have defended the set-play a lot better. Then Moi had a great chance to equalise and, psychologically, we would have been in the game.

“Going out and conceding so early in the second half, and the manner of it, was bitterly disappointing, and you could just tell we lacked a little bit of experience out there today and a little bit of nous.

“We still had a good team out there and I felt we should have done better. We should have been at least level at half-time and then that would have given us a foothold in the game, but when we went 2-0 down, we just looked like we had ran out of ideas and the substitutes really didn’t have the impact we were looking for.”

There were five players making their derby bows, with Diego Laxalt making his Celtic debut, and his manager felt that the Uruguayan did well in his first game.

“It’s difficult for him coming in, but I thought his play looked strong,” the Hoops boss said. “He put some really good balls into the box, his positional sense was good and he looked comfortable in that environment.

“I also thought young Stephen Welsh played really well, considering all the talk about him before the game. I thought he handled the game very, very well.”

Next up for Celtic is a Europa League group-stage game against AC Milan at home this Thursday night, and that will be another tough game for the Hoops.

“Jamesy won’t be available and Chris Jullien, I doubt very much if he’ll be available,” he said. “And the lads who have tested positive for COVID will be out. Maybe we’ll have Ryan Christie back. We’ll have to wait and see how that is over the next couple of days.”

Manager: We should have done better in derby clash