THERE were no wisecracks, no swear words slipped out and not one single attempt to take the you know what out of those quizzing him.

For perhaps the first time ever Scott Brown was serious from start to finish of an interview, and he has done plenty of them since breaking into the Hibernian team at 17, so you knew that he knew this was no time for jokes.

Brown is not just captain of Celtic. He is much more than that. Nobody feels it more when things go bad, nobody celebrates as much when the good times come, and there have been plenty since arriving at Celtic in 2007.

The situation the champions find themselves in, with Aberdeen breathing down their necks with just over a quarter of the league campaign remaining, is not dreadful but it is concerning. Brown knows this and the supporters most certainly do.

Now if Ronny Deila had a team full of "Broonies," the manager never calls him Scott, then things would be quite different. The midfielder, now 30 but still with the same desire and passion, could never be accused of allowing the head to drop once a goal goes in or, and this is a favourite of social media, of no longer paying for the gaffer.

“No matter who the manager at the time, the players give 110 per cent,” said an adamant Brown. “We worked just as hard at Aberdeen but we didn’t create as many chances as we should have. We know that and we’ve taken that on the chin.

"We need to go and work on that now, develop and see what we can do in the next few games because it’s going to be a hard few games.”

But what of these accusations that this Celtic team doesn’t do adversity, that when they go behind, such as against Ross County and Aberdeen, that there is not enough spirit within the team to work out a way back into the game, something countless Celtic sides of the past have done.

“That’s just an easy thing to say,” said Brown. “It’s natural to say, that you shrink, you go down. But it wasn’t like that.

“If you watch the Aberdeen game we continued to do what we were doing in the first 30 minutes and then they got a corner, put a great ball in the box and got a header and it’s muddled in and somehow got in as well."

A problem has been that since Deila arrived, 23 players have been signed, some have already left, many have not cut it yet, and this is in stark contrast to days gone by when a few new faces had to be integrated at any one time.

Brown spoke about strength in depth and that is all very well but the depth has to be strong and, right now, it seems that Celtic have plenty of players, just not enough of them realise what it takes to be a part of the football club.

“It is always hard for the new players coming in to establish themselves in the team,” said the captain. “We had a good six month period there, and then the two new guys have just come in and done well in training.

“We have five or six out injured at the moment, so it shows you that strength in depth. We’ve got guys like Scott Allan, Ryan Christie and now Colin Kazim-Richards, which is the strength needed over a long season.

“Consistency is huge in this game, but to have that squad rotation as well, once legs get tired after 35 or 40 games, then you need top quality players available to come in. We need to put trust in them, whether it is 15 or 20 minutes off the bench or for 90 minutes.

“I disagree we lack fight. I think we still have players there and we have players coming back who have that. Charlie Mulgrew has been a big miss for us for a big part of the season and he’s definitely got that. He loves the club, he fights, he wants to win and that’s what we need to show a lot more of.”

At least Brown is back. He ran out of juice in midweek but he is getting there and wants to play against East Kilbride on Sunday in the Scottish Cup. His team desperately need him to be fit for this run-in.

“I’m getting there slowly with my own fitness and 90 minutes was hard on Wednesday night,” said Brown. “I started to feel my legs cramping in the last ten minutes.

“But I’m getting back to normal and feel good. They were two tough pitches to play on, at Hampden and Pittodrie, but that’s Scotland for you. I’ll be okay to play on the artificial pitch at Airdrie. I’m looking forward to being involved on Sunday and getting some more minutes under my belt.

“It’s all about getting fitness now, trying to get the sharpness back. The constant running isn’t a problem; it’s the short, sharp stuff. I didn’t need an operation, which was the major push for me to get back and not miss the rest of the season."