Callum McGregor has explained that the only anger in the Fir Park dressing room at half-time came from the players and not Brendan Rodgers.

The Hoops went into Saturday’s interval trailing in a domestic game for the first time since the Northern Irishman’s arrival at the club.

But McGregor, whose goal immediately after the restart was the catalyst for the come-back, insisted that Rodgers was the calmest man in the ground.

“He was brilliant at half-time,” he said. “You’re not really sure what to expect in a situation like that when you are trailing a game 2-0 and you know it’s been poor.

“But he was excellent. He was really calm, really precise. He knew what had gone wrong and he knew how to fix it. He gave us quite specific instructions about how to go about the second half and we always felt that if we came out early and got a goal that we could get ourselves back into it.

“The only anger in the dressing room at the break was from us as players. We were annoyed with ourselves as much as anything because there was a real feeling that we had let ourselves down with the goals that we conceded.

“But I think it just shows you the spirit that we have in our team. I was always told that Celtic are a team who never know when they are beaten, that you never give up until the last whistle.

“I think we showed our character with the result and showed just how hungry we are to keep winning.”

McGregor deputised at left-back before Rodgers reverted to a back three after the interval and it was a one-two with Stuart Armstrong and McGregor that led to the goal that got Celtic back into the game.

“As soon as we got that one we could sense that we would get ourselves back into it but we were gutted to get it back to 2-2 and then let Motherwell score again. But the manager talks to us about being relentless and that’s what we set out to do.

“We didn’t lose our focus. We tried to keep the ball down, keep looking for the passes and the angles and we got our reward.

“Big Tom [Rogic] seems to be making a habit out of the pulling out the big goals for us! He has been brilliant this season and I was delighted when that last goal went it – the whole team was.

“It was a great game to be part of and it just shows you that we are never going to give up. It is up to others to say whether or not we can go through the season unbeaten or not but I think you can see that we’re not going to be easy to beat, that’s for sure.”

Celtic head to the Etihad tomorrow night as they face Manchester City in their conclusive UEFA Champions League game.

And McGregor is optimistic that there will be further lessons learned from the clash with Pep Guardiola’s side that will enable to Celtic to kick on from their experience.

“I think you have seen an improvement in us as the European campaign went on,” he said. “For a lot of the boys in the team this was their first experience of playing in the group stages of the Champions League.

“It is a tough environment. You can’t afford to make mistakes. Hopefully we can give a solid account of ourselves tomorrow night and then use what we have learned this season in order that we are in there again next season.”