Motherwell boss Stevie Hammell admits that Celtic's second goal deflated his team and took the life out of Fir Park as his side fell to a 4-0 Premier Sports Cup quarter-final defeat.
A Liel Abada double and strikes from Reo Hatate and Kygo put the Steelmen to the sword on a freezing cold evening in Motherwell.
Hammell says that second strike in 56 minutes was a killer for his side.
He said: "The second goal takes the life out of us, it takes the life out of the stadium, it deflated us a little bit, lifts them, lets them make some changes and be a little bit more free in their play.
"The second goal is the disappointing one. It's a good goal from their point of view, but from our point of view it's absolutely avoidable.
"We understand their threats, and we know where they are in terms of how quick and sharp they are in and around the box, but we can stop that at source, especially the time of the game.
"It doesn't really matter what kind of style you're playing, what your approach is or the formation that you're playing - the scenarios we found ourselves in we should be dealing with it better."
Hammell added: "It's disappointing. We came here to do well and the way it played out it's still a little bit fresh but we're massively disappointed.
"I thought for large parts of the first half we did OK, we were in the game, we were strong, and wanted to get after them.
"We've come up against a very good team, there's no getting away from that, it's a team that's on a certain level that we can't compete with.
"But we wanted to make this game as competitive as we could and I think we did for a large part of the first half.
"As everyone knows that's associated with football that time, and the time we lose the goal, which was avoidable and probably consistent with the other goals we ended up losing as well.
"Losing games is a concern. We came up against a good team in a good moment, they're playing well, you almost need to be perfect to come away from here with anything. We're disappointed with the way it has played out."
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