Liam Kelly says sometimes you have to hold your hands up and admit the better team won – but says Motherwell could have made life harder for Celtic.
Ange Postecoglou’s side ran out 4-0 winners in Wednesday night’s Premier Sports Cup quarter-final to set up a semi-final showdown against Kilmarnock.
Goalkeeper Kelly says there’s no doubt that Celtic deserved to win, and at least they had a go at Fir Park.
He said: “It’s really disappointing. We were beaten by the better team, it was clear to see for everybody.
“We gave it a right good go, lost goals at terrible times, and never really recovered.
“We got them on a day when they played really well, and they’re difficult to stop when they’re like that, but we can still improve, get better.
“But they deserved to win.
“It’s maybe a wee theme we’re going through just now of losing poor goals at poor times.
“We just need to try and stop it, don’t you? Keep working hard on the training ground, try to get better, and sometimes you need to hold your hands up and say you were beaten by the better team.”
Kelly added: “You know you’re going to end up making saves against Celtic, and sometimes you can’t save them all.
“It’s not a brilliant night for us, but when they play like that it’s hard for us, because of the level of player they’ve got, and the way they play.
“We gave it a right good go, we tried our very best, we came up a bit short.
“Next time we play them again we’ll be better for it, we’ll try our best again, and hopefully get a better result.”
Former Rangers, Livingston and QPR shot-stopper Kelly admits he was impressed by Celtic, but says Motherwell could have done better.
He said: “You can just see that Celtic’s confidence is through the roof just now when you play against them.
“They take more risks, they’ve got so much belief within themselves.
“Celtic are obviously playing really well just now, they’re the league-leaders and the team to catch, and when they play like they did, it makes it really difficult for us.
“I feel as though we could have played better on the ball. Off the ball we were all right, we gave it a right good go, but personally and collectively I feel we could have been a wee bit better and braver on the ball, looked after it for longer spells, ourselves.”
Motherwell turn their attentions to the visit by Aberdeen in the Premiership on Saturday, and Kelly hopes his side can bounce back.
He said: “We came up short against a good team, we ran Rangers close at the weekend, so we’re not too downbeat, we’re trying to remain positive.
“It’s obviously a big game against Aberdeen, at the weekend, it’s going to be a really difficult game, but we’re going to go into it and try to win.
“The best way to get a result is by playing well, I think that goes hand-in-hand, and it’s an absolutely massive game, but every game is for us.
“It’s going to be a really difficult game, we played a great game against them up there, won 3-2. It was really close and a really good game, so we’ll take plenty of confidence from that game.
“We’re hoping to give our fans something to be happy about.
“There’s not been too much to smile about recently, in terms of results, but performance-wise we’re still trying to improve.
“It’s still early on with the manager, he’s still trying to get his message across, and we’re still trying to remain positive in the dressing room, and we are.”
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