Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers has said that he was pleased with how Dedryck Boyata reacted to the negative reception from the club’s faithful. The Belgian came for stick after faking an injury to miss the Champions League tie versus AEK Athens which the Hoops lost and thereafter, there were protests from the supporters to exclude him from first-team duty.

Amidst this, Rodgers made the surprise decision to start Boyata for the league game versus Hamilton and the centre-back managed to prove his worth with a 63rd-minute winner. Speaking about the same, Rodgers said: “Obviously I would have preferred a different reaction but I am not going to criticise the supporters.

“I will give credit to Dedryck and how he coped with it and you saw the (positive) reaction from probably three quarters of the ground. When you are trying to redeem yourself sometimes it takes a bit of time. Naturally supporters, the real passionate supporters, look for that commitment in the player, it is not always about ability. The reaction of three quarters of the stadium plus his team-mates, you see we are all together.”

Celtic have dominated the proceedings in the Scottish Premiership over the past seven years but “they have not had the best of starts this time around with three points already dropped from their opening three matches. “Nonetheless, they remain favourites for yet another title and it would come as a shock, if they are not able to replicate the feat from the previous seven seasons.

Meanwhile, the Hoops have already missed the opportunity to reach another Champions League group stage but they can reach the same phase of the Europa League, should they overcome Suduva on Thursday night. The first leg of the play-off round ended in a 1-1 draw and Rodgers’ side are now scheduled to host the Lithuanian side at Parkhead.