JOE HART was possibly the only Celtic player to get passmarks on an evening to forget in the Arctic Circle.
The 34-year-old 75 times-capped England international was given little protection from the dithering defenders in front of him as Bodo/Glimt added two more goals to their 3-1 first leg win to dismiss the Hoops from the European Conference League on a disastrous 5-1 aggregate score.
Hart had no chance with the strikes in each half and but for two superb stops from Amahl Pellegrino the game would have been over by the interval.
The winger, who scored in Glasgow, thought he had repeated the feat on his own ground when he was left with just the experienced netminder to beat, but on both occasions the Hoops No.1 denied him.
ON GUARD…Joe Hart prepares to deal with another dangerous attack in Norway.
Accusations were flying around with reckless abandonment at players who clearly under-performed in admittedly difficult conditions on a plastic pitch that had long since been mastered by their opponents, but Hart insisted: “Look, we stick together. We work hard. Sometimes we have to point things out to each other.
“It was tough to be 4-1 down in the tie away from home. Sometimes you need to try to push each other.
“I think we were beaten by the better team over two legs. Bodo deserved to win the tie.
“The home game was a pretty even affair and I felt we were dominant in terms of having control of the game.
“Bodo took their chances which was obviously key. It set them up for this game, but we didn’t start particularly well.
“The goal made it difficult. We have a focus and a standard no matter what the scoreline is or what situation we are in.
“We work hard and stick to our principles and we believe we will gain more, even if we lose.”
BY THE RIGHT…Joe Hart deflects a close-range drive from Amahl Pellegrino.
Commenting on the obvious frustration displayed by manager Ange Postecoglou, Hart, speaking to the Daily Record, said: “Of course, he wasn’t happy. None of us were happy.
“But we’re certainly not going to get too down about it. We have got big stuff ahead.
“Every game we go in to we have the intention of winning and playing our brand of football.
“We haven’t don’t it on this occasion. What can we do? Nothing. But we can move on to Sunday and do our best to perform and win again.
“There is a bigger picture – and that’s the only picture.
“It’s really simple. While we were in this competition, it was in our picture to win it.
“Of course, it was. We are out now, but we are still in the league and the Cup and that’s what we’ll focus on.”
BY THE LEFT…Joe Hart prepares to swoop to deny Pellegrino again with Anthony Ralston too late to intervene.
Key players such as Callum McGregor and Liel Abada, who made appearances in the second-half, Filipe Jota, Reo Hatate, Josip Juranovic and Cameron Carter-Vickers were on the substitutes’ bench with Postecoglou clearly looking at the vital midday Premiership confrontation against Hibs at Easter Road.
Hart added: “The manager has the squad he wants. It doesn’t matter who plays or in what position. We play as a squad.
“The eleven represent the other 15 or 16 who don’t play. That’s our jobs – to represent this club and for us to be successful we have to stick together.
“The message is the same every game. It’s so clear from this manager. No matter what we always review and see what we can do better, if we’ve won 5-0 or lose 5-1, like we have in this tie.
“We look for improvement no matter what. The games are coming thick and fast so we have to move on.
“We put every game to bed and look to impose ourselves next time. We believe that will win us more games than not.”
