Celtic goalkeeper Lukasz Zaluska has dismissed the club's friendly defeat to Stuttgart Kickers – and insisted the major focus is the upcoming Champions League qualifiers.
Zaluska played in the 1-0 defeat to the lower league German side on Sunday and will continue to fight with new £2m signing Fraser Forster to be Neil Lennon's first choice.
The 30-year-old believes the Hoops lost to a good side, but is more concerned with preparing correctly for the qualifying stages of the Cham-pions League as Celtic look to return to Europe's top club competition.
"It was a busy game, our opponents had a good few chances to score some goals, especially in the second-half," he told the club's website.
"We lost but we have to be ready for the first qualifier so we are all working towards that.
"Stuttgart Kickers were a good team and I think they looked even better than Augsburg. It was a hard game and we lost but the final score is not important.
"I hope we are making progress but it's hard to talk about progress over just five days – the most important thing for us is to be ready for the qualifier in two weeks."
Zaluska also reckons goalkeepers have a much tougher pre-season than outfield players.
He said: "It is so hard for a goalkeeper, we work twice as hard as the players and Woodsy (Stevie Woods, Celtic goalkeeping coach) is a madman, he pushes us all of the time.
"You could ask Fraser and he would say the same. We ache from all the work we have been doing. Pre-season is very hard, we are working a lot doing double sessions so the focus is on fitness and not scores just now."