'No excuse for that' - Celtic let down Australian fans with Sydney showing, admits Anthony Ralston

Celtic defender Anthony Ralston confessed that expected standards failed to be met by Ange Postecoglou’s men in the 2-1 loss over Sydney FC and the nature of the competition does not make that fact any more palatable.

Celtic will be faced with a rescue mission in their encounter with Everton on Sunday to avoid their trek over to their manager’s homeland Australia to compete in the Sydney Super Cup turning out any anything but the celebratory excursion it was meant to be. And the Scotland right-back is dumped over his team finding themselves in such a position, especially for the Celtic supporters - both home-based and those who made the journey from Scotland - among the estimated 20,000 crowd in the 42,000 Allianz Stadium.

“We hold high standards here,” said Ralston. “Friendly, cup final, it doesn’t matter, we have the same intention going into every game. Our intent was to come here and play as we do in the league. And if we lost in the league we would be disappointed. But the only positive you can really take is that it was good to get 90 minutes in. And that’s about it. I just felt as a collective we weren’t on it, and there is no excuse for that. We let them play through the middle too easily and in hindsight didn’t take our chances. I’m sure we will analyse it and see where we went wrong.

“We wanted to put on a show. Not just for the fans who live here and get up at three in the morning to watch us when there are league games, but also for the travelling fans here. It is disappointing from that aspect but it was nice to see the turn out here and get the chance to perform in front of fans that rarely get to see us. It was nice to see them and for them to see us in person.

Celtic's Anthony Ralston is challenged by Jake Girdwood-Reich of Sydney FC during the Sydney Super Cup match at Allianz Stadium. (Photo by Mark Evans/Getty Images)

“It is special to be able to see the fanbase that we have over here and globally. You see the fanbase over in Glasgow, it is the best in the world. And you come over here and see how strong the fanbase is around the world, it is special. We carry a responsibility [through that], friendlies, league games or whatever, they come and see us and it is important we give back to them.”