Charlie Mulgrew, the Celtic defender, is confident the club's new players will have a better idea of the standards expected of them following the defeat by Hamilton Academical last Sunday.
The Scottish champions suffered their first home defeat by the Lanarkshire club for 76 years and were left sixth in the SPFL Premiership table, with captain Scott Brown later accusing some of his team-mates of "hiding".
The 1-0 defeat also left another bruised on the embattled reign of manager Ronny Deila, who has come under increasing scrutiny since he took charge of Celtic in the summer. In particular, supporters have found cause to question the arrival of such as Aleksandar Tonev, Mubarak Wakaso, Stefan Scepovic and Jo Inge Berget at Celtic Park, with the latter only unused substitutes during the loss to Hamilton.
Mulgrew was seated only in the stand, a knee injury having kept him out of both that league match and the Scotland squad ahead of qualifiers with Georgia and Poland, albeit the 28-year-old was suspended for the qualifier at Ibrox tomorrow. He is expected to be available for selection for Celtic and the visit of Ross County a week later.
His experience will help benefit the Scottish champions, but the defender is certain that players who are still new to the club will now have a clear picture of the demands of playing at Celtic, too. "If they didn't before they must [know] now," said Mulgrew, speaking at his club's Lennoxtown training complex where he helped publicise the charity donation from club sponsors Magners of £18,300 to Celtic FC Foundation.
"There is pressure on us now to start winning. There is [pressure] every game but especially after a defeat you need to come back out fighting. It wasn't good enough all round [against Hamilton]. We all know that. There has been times this season when it hasn't been but if we take one or two chances in the first half then it is a different game.
"We didn't do that and things changed, they got the goal to make it difficult for us. We all have to do better as a group. I don't think confidence is an issue, that is fine. But it is time we got results and we need to start doing that in the next match."
Mulgrew would not be drawn on the remarks made by Brown towards his team-mates - "Scott is just a passionate guy" - but would likely acknowledge that the return of both himself and Mikael Lustig are a real boost for the embattled champions.
Lustig has returned to full training after recovering from a groin injury and, indeed, could play for Sweden on Sunday in a qualifying tie against Liechtenstein. "We will monitor his progress for our next match," said Erik Hamren, the Sweden manager.
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