Brian Rice delivered a brutally honest verdict on Hamilton Accies' Celtic defeat admitting the Hoops were "on a different level from us."
An Odsonne Edouard hat-trick, a Jeremie Frimpong strike and a late addition by Patryk Kimala secured an impressive closed-door victory.
Scott Martin's deflected effort proved to be nothing more than a consolation.
The New Douglas Park gaffer said in his post-match interview with Sky Sports that he would expect to beat Accies on the opening day if he was in Neil Lennon's shoes.
The boss refused to make excuses after they were sent to the bottom of the table on matchday one.
"It's very difficult coming here and playing against the champions," he said. "You see the squad of players and the substitutes that they bring on.
"If I was Celtic I would be disappointed if I couldn't beat Hamilton on the opening day of the season.
"I think we had a couple of chances; I think we spotted a couple of weaknesses in the Celtic defence and created a couple of chances from that.
"The boys were hanging in there at half time, but I told them the first 15-20 minutes is going to be crucial. They switched off and all the goals came from wide areas.
"A bit of naivety with some of the young lads, but it's like I said before the game we will learn from this; we will get better from this.
"When you play against good players and good teams you see what they do.
"You see the levels they achieve as individuals and as a team and you have to strive to match that, to be the best you can be.
"There were some really good Celtic performances out there. Celtic are on a different level to us.
"I think it's very, very unfair if you're trying to judge me against Celtic."
When asked if the season starts next week, Rice bristled: "No, the season started today, we're bottom of the league.
"We need to try and get off it.
"We came Celtic Park and scored even though we weren't in the game. A lot of the lads got their first experience of playing against a top team.
"There are always positives you can take. It's easy to pick negatives and dwell on the negatives, I don't dwell on the negatives.
"I look for the positives, and I have two or three positives today."
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