IF the confidence of Celtic's players has been dented by their 3-1 defeat to Fulham they can console themselves with one indisputable fact.

They will not face a side as good as the one they took on at Craven Cottage on Saturday in the defence of their SPL title in the next 10 months.

Sure, the London club may only just have avoided being relegated from the Barclays Premier League in dramatic circumstances on the final day of last season.

Yet, Roy Hodgson has transformed the fortunes of the London club since taking charge as manager midway through a difficult 2007/08 campaign.

And, having drafted in several new players in recent weeks, Fulham should secure their place in the top flight with some ease on this evidence.

Anyway, in pre-season friendlies like this one - only the second of the summer for the Scottish champions -results are not the be-all and end-all.

Hoops manager Gordon Strachan made no fewer than seven changes in London; he brought on Paul Hartley, Georgios Samaras, Mark Wilson, Paul Caddis, Cillian Sheridan, Koki Mizuno and Darren O'Dea.

That amount of chopping and changing was clearly more designed to give his entire squad a decent run-out against top class opposition than to achieve a triumph.

However, that is not to say that this outing has not given Strachan, who side arrived in Portugal for a warm weather training stint yesterday, some serious food for thought.

Many of the flaws which all too often crept into his team's play last season were on display on a blustery afternoon on the banks of the River Thames.

The visitors, whose army of travelling supporters vastly outnumbered the pathetic home contingent, gifted their hosts two soft opening goals with Erik Nevland and Bobby Zamora the grateful beneficiaries.

You would have though the mooted arrival of Gabriel Tamas in a £4.4million transfer from Auxerre would have brought out some fine play from Gary Caldwell and Stephen McManus. Perhaps the Romanian defender will, if he does finalise a transfer to Scotland, help to shore up a backline which has looked highly suspect at times of late.

To be fair to Celtic, the quality of much of Fulham's play, and their goals from Nevland, Zamora and Leon Andreasen especially, was absolutely first class.

Hodgson's men frustrated the best efforts of Aiden McGeady, fresh from agreeing a new five-year contract last week, to carve out an opening.

The half chances which did fall to all-Antipodean strike duo of Chris Killen and Scott McDonald were safely dealt with by keeper David Stockdale and came to nothing.

Elsewhere, Massimo Donati, a surprise starter in midfield alongside Scott Brown, Aiden McGeady and Barry Robson, produced another directionless performance.

Donati did not reappear after half-time. Having been tipped to move on in recent weeks, this no-show must cast further doubt on his future at Parkhead.

Hartley came on for the second half and Brown, for one, fared far better alongside his Scotland team mate than he had next to the Italian.

The hugely-talented 23-year-old, a high-profile capture from Hibs last summer, was, like Donati, a big disappointment in his first season for Celtic.

It has since emerged that he was having to deal with serious personal problems away from football during that time. He suggested with a lively afternoon's work, which was capped at the end when his powerful 25-yard shot shaved the Fulham post, that much better is to come.

It took an exceptional strike from Robson to break through the Fulham rearguard. With pinpoint accuracy and no little power, he curled a low left-footed free-kick around the defensive wall and into the bottom left hand corner.

Robson's promotion to the Celtic side last season coincided with a sharp upturn in their fortunes which resulted in them winning the unlikeliest of title triumphs on the final day.

Against Fulham, he was comfortable in possession, wreaked havoc bursting forward and passed beautifully. He could be set to be an influential figure once more both domestically and in Europe.

The same could not be said of many of the players who lined up with him on Saturday - unless they raise their games in the days and weeks ahead.