RONNY DEILA has warned his Celtic players the bounce-back must start now as he targets a magnificent seven straight wins.

The Hoops swing back into action after the international break when they face bottom club Ross County at Dingwall on Saturday.

It marks the start of a seven-game schedule across three competitions before club action stops for the next batch of internationals. And, having fallen to sixth in the Premiership after defeat to Hamilton, Deila acknowledges they must regain the winning thread immediately - not least because they face Astra in the first of a crucial Europa League double-header a wee tonight.

The manager says he feels the punishing schedule - they have played 17 games this season - has had a detrimental effect on the changes he has tried to implement.

But Deila is now bracing himself for more hectic action, and said: "It's the same amount of games and same programme we had before the international break, so we will know what to expect and, hopefully, we can go through all those games and win them all."

Failure to achieve this would give further ammunition to those taking pot-shots at the man who replaced Neil Lennon in the summer.

But Deila remains confident early problems are being overcome and progress is being made, though results such as the defeat to Hamilton can undo much of the good work.

He said: "We were very disappointed we didn't get a better result against Hamilton, but we are going to fight to win trophies. That's what we are going to work the whole season for, and I have a strong belief we are going to do that."

Anything short of a convincing win at Dingwall will be disappointing as the Hoops enter a pivotal phase of the season. As he continued to check on the condition of the players who were on international duty, Deila admitted: "The Ross County game is very important. We want to bounce back at once.

"I saw their game against Inverness [another of the sides Celtic face in the seven-game run] and they were very good in the first half. It will be an intense game and we need to get the ball down, get the tempo up, create chances and defend well at times."

Deila hopes to have Charlie Mulgrew, Adam Matthews, Mikael Lustig and James Forrest available again after injury. And he took the chance to give Leigh Griffiths and Stefan Scepovic much-needed game time in Tuesday's development team game against Hamilton. Both men scored.

The manager retains the faith which saw him spend £2.3million to sign Scepovic from Sporting Gijon.

He has struggled to acclimatise to his new surroundings, and the manager told the Celtic View: "He needs time, but he is improving

all the time and is going to get chances to show himself … Stefan is an important player, but he needs to get matches and get things settled."