Brendan Rodgers addresses anti-Celtic board chants and why Adam Idah was subbed at half-time

It means the Scottish champions’ hopes of a place in the league stage and the estimated £40 million booty rests on a game played 3,500 miles away in Almaty. It might be just as well it’s so far away as far as the Celtic hierarchy are concerned.

Chairman Peter Lawwell and chief executive Michael Nicholson were targeted during the game by the Green Brigade, who demanded the pair leave the club. “Sack the board!” chants resounded round the ground. Supporters also protested at the front of the main stand afterwards.

Rodgers tried to make light of the discord at such a crucial period for his team but he knows there’s been a dereliction of duty somewhere in the building. “What I do know is, over many years 'sack the board' usually means 'sack the manager',” he said. “It's normally the manager that goes when that starts to be sung! I can only really look at the players we have here, and the performance. We've known for a long time what we've needed as a squad, so I don't want to go into that.”

He was asked again and again about the shortage of signings - or at least new players of the standard required to fill the gaps left by the likes of Kyogo Furuhashi and Nicolas Kuhn, as well as the injured Jota. Right-back Alistair Johnston has also joined Jota on the sidelines after sustaining a suspected hamstring strain in the first half. “I haven't spoken to the medical guys yet, but it looks hamstring injury, which is disappointing,” said Rodgers. “So I'll get more info on that.”

On the issue of new signings, or the lack of them, he was asked why Celtic are in this position when they’ve had so long to prepare for the play-off round.

“I can't answer that,” he said. “Because it's not my decision in the end. I can prepare the team. The staff, the players that are here have been fantastic over pre-season. We're all clear on what we need to improve. And for whatever reason, we haven't been able to do that. So now we're in this position.

“And we have to accept it, and not dwell on it. And try and come through it for Saturday (v Livingston) and for Tuesday."

‘Can’t afford to wait’

He was asked whether he has enough game-changers to be confident of progression next week. "Whether I think it or not, we have to do it," he said.

Adam Idah is not included among the game-changers on current form. The striker was taken off at half-time and has yet to score this season.

Rodgers accepted it’s a tricky time for the struggling Irishman. “There's no rocket science in it,” he said. “It's all hard work. It's all preparation. That will obviously lead to confidence, and then you'll obviously succeed as a player from that. It didn't quite go for him in the first half. I wanted a little bit more activity in and around the box, because I felt we could get up there.

“Adam's a good boy. He's an honest boy. He hasn't quite started how he would have liked. But in games like these here, I can't afford to wait. And that's why I made the change at half time.”

‘Lightest we’ve been’

Rodgers admitted Celtic are as ‘light’ as he can remember when it comes to squad depth. He described the team's first-half performance as "passive" and lacking intent. He stressed that players are being forced to play out of position.

“I would say going into these sort of games, this is probably the lightest that we've been in certain key areas of the pitch,” he said. “You can see over the course of the season so far we haven’t given away a great deal. We've defended well, we've defended strong. Of course, goals win games, and that's the area of the pitch where we've been short in.

“It's more just in terms of freshness and energy and that bit of quality. It's a little bit messy (at the moment). Listen, we started the season well. A wee bit of a blip tonight in terms of the result, but I’ve got every confidence that we can go out there (to Kazakhstan) and win.”