RONNY DEILA last night admitted he never considers resting Scott Brown because he's the fittest player at the club.

The Celtic skipper played all 90 minutes of his side's 2-0 League Cup win over Raith Rovers on a night when it would have been understandable if he'd been left out by his manager.

Deila, however, will always pick the 30-year-old unless Brown himself asks not to play because of injury.

The Celtic boss said: "Broony always gives us 100 per cent. He is always fit and always wants to play. Nobody can say he is not fit. He is the fittest player I have.

"But when you play 60 or 70 games a season, you can't be at your top level all the time.

"Everyone has periods when they are up and down. Scott has been brilliant for the last couple of games. He will always play."

Deila also praised Nadir Ciftci for his performance. The Turk could have played all night and not scored, but in fairness he put in a real shift and always showed for the ball.

The Norwegian said: "I thought Nadir worked really hard. It starts with that. You can see that he has skills to keep up the ball. Now he just has to get match fitness and get into games.

"That is the important thing. Now he has got two games of playing time and he will get more in the future.”

Celtic were made to work for their win. Raith didn't have many chances, although they did have a positive outlook and were only really beaten when Stefan Johansen scored in the final minutes.

Deila said: "It was difficult because they gave 110 per cent. Sometimes it’s easy to get a little bit lazy, but the players worked for 90 minutes and kept up the pressure.

"We could have scored more and to keep another clean sheet was very important.

“But at 1-0 anything can happen. They had a few chances at the end and they deserve a lot of credit for all their hard work and the fact they defended very well. However, I am happy with the win and I think we deserved it.

"It is always difficult when you change so many players and their positions. They have to get a new relationship. We could have played it quicker and had more movement in the final third of the pitch.

"If you make changes it can be difficult to get it going, but individually I thought they players were good and their attitude on the whole was good.”

Aberdeen going out at Hibs was an unexpected bonus, even if Deila did not want to make too much of his biggest rivals exiting the competition.

Asked if he welcomed the Dons defeat, he said: "Welcome it? I don’t know what to say about that. It just shows how difficult this is. There were upsets happening on Tuesday as well.

"You can never take anything for granted in football. It starts with being prepared and then doing the job and my players tonight were professional and did that very well.”