FRUSTRATED Motherwell manager Mark McGhee claimed his team will not be the last to be blown away by free-flowing Celtic this season after another Parkhead nightmare.

Just three months on from being hammered 7-0 in the east end of Glasgow by the Ladbrokes Premiership champions on the last day of the season, his team were turned over with ease by Brendan Rodgers’ side in this 5-0 rout.

The visitors’ best player on the park was goalkeeper Craig Samson who, despite pulling off a host of stunning saves, was powerless to prevent his team crash out of the Betfred Cup at the last 16 stage.

And as McGhee now turns his attention back to Motherwell’s league campaign, he couldn’t help but admire the performance of the opposition on a drab night at Celtic Park.

“I don’t think for a minute that that will be the worst result for a team here this season,” said the Well manager. “When they get going like that and their finishing is a little bit better it could be more.

“Our goalkeeper played particularly well. There will be a day when a team’s goalkeeper doesn’t play that well and it will be more.

“They do have to keep these players fit. That is an aspect of it. And these players have to keep that form going. We can take things from it in that young players like Cadden and Marvin Johnson can see how their strikers went about their game and aspire to that.

“Celtic are different from last season. They look like a team now that to a certain extent to rely ont heir good players to play really well and that happened tonight.

“Last year they had a more sophisticated movement of full-backs getting on, wingers running inside and we didn’t know if the full-back was marking the winger. That was hard to play against.

“This is slightly different as it is me against you and you have to do better than the other guy. Tonight they did much better than us individually.”

This defeat will come as a shock to the system to the small band of Motherwell supporters that trudged out of Parkhead last night.

Coming into the game on the back of four wins – including Saturday’s Premiership opener away to Kilmarnock that saw them triumph 2-1 – their team weren’t at the races for the majority of this encounter.

With that in mind, McGhee insists it is now a matter of making sure his players refocus in time for the arrival of St Johnstone to Fir Park on League Duty this Saturday.

“I thought at times Celtic were not only technically better than us, their movement and passing were better, but even physically at times they looked stronger than us,” conceded the Motherwell manager, who earlier in the day completed the signing of Craig Clay on a two-year deal. “I don’t think there is any excuse for that.

“We have got a gym and the boys need to learn there is a more physical side to it. I am not taking about 50/50s. I am talking about a challenge where you have got to stand and hold the ball and keep the ball.

“The likes of Cadden and these boys have got to learn from what they see in some of the Celtic players.”