HE was incapable of holding any kind of meaningful conversation with his team-mates inside the dressing-room. Instead, he sent out a message on social media to apologise to the public for a performance he recognised as “shocking”.

Leigh Griffiths was no easier on himself when it came to discussing the events of Celtic’s Europa League exit at the hands of Ajax in the Mixed Zone.

He blamed himself for everything. For the end of a most indistinguished European campaign for the club. For the number of chances he spurned on the night. For the pressure now being exerted on his manager, Ronny Deila.

He even insisted that he would drop himself from tomorrow’s league visit to Inverness.

What’s more, he meant every word of it. Griffiths did have a bad night, but he has worked hard with the ability he has to reach this level of football and you had better believe that he will keep beating himself up and putting himself in the firing line to get better.

Certainly, it seems he can bank on the support of his team-mates. He should have their backing in this hour of need. Where would the side be without the 18 goals he has scored in all competitions this season?

Even in a match in which a gung-ho attitude was required on Thursday night, Deila could not bring himself to introduce the underwhelming Nadir Ciftci or the lesser-spotted Anthony Stokes from the substitutes’ bench.

Carlton Cole, meanwhile, remains nowhere to be seen. Celtic have nothing else up front, no-one they can trust, and midfielder Stuart Armstrong believes Griffiths can still take some positives from what was one of his hardest nights in green-and-white.

“He’s hard on himself,” said the former Dundee United man. “He’s disappointed, but he has pulled us out of it many times and come up with goals out of nothing.

“The team can’t rely on him every game. I think it just shows what a high level he has set for himself.

“He shouldn’t be disappointed in his performance. I thought he was very good and got into all the right positions for a striker.

“He has shown so many times this season that he is in the right place at the right time. It just didn’t happen for him against Ajax.”

Scott Allan, who was introduced as a late substitute, was equally supportive of him.

“He had a few chances, but you can’t really argue with his goal record,” said Allan. “He has probably been our best player this season.”

If anything, it was Allan’s error which, ultimately, ended Celtic’s involvement in the competition. He was caught napping by Vaclav Cerny on the edge of the Ajax area and watched in horror as the Czech galloped the entire length of the field before slipping the winning goal past Craig Gordon.

Allan, hampered by knee trouble since signing in a controversial move from Hibernian, had waited for the chance to shine at his new club and had brought a certain dynamism to the side with his aggressive passing.

“I always want to go forward with the ball, to try and create chances by slipping a few in,” he said. “Unfortunately, I got caught from the corner and we’ve lost the game.

“I’m just really disappointed.

“I should just have got it in the box and gone from there, but these things happen. Decisions like that can cost you games.”

Armstrong did not do badly in his preferred central midfield role and insists he will take some important lessons from a disappointing European adventure.

“Overall in the campaign, it has been the same story,” said Armstrong. “We’ve been so close and yet so far.

“We stuck to the game plan against Ajax and created a lot of chances, but we just didn’t take them.

“Getting nothing and going out of Europe is quite devastating.”

He insists that the spirit shown against the Dutch league leaders was pleasing, however, following two disastrous defeats to Norwegian club Molde.

“Those performances weren’t good enough,” he conceded.

“I thought we really stepped it up against Ajax. I thought we were good defensively.

“They had a lot of possession, but clear-cut chances were few and far between for them and I thought we were good on the counter-attack.

“This is my first proper European campaign and I’ve learned a lot about playing in Europe and about what it takes to go through.

“It is the small details which matter. It is the chances that are taken and missed.

“Also, being patient is something that is vital.”