DAVIE PROVAN doesn’t take much joy out of anything these days and even when Celtic Park is rocking and the bhoys pull out a result against Lazio the first thing that comes to mind to appease his paymasters at The Sun is to discredit the opposition.

Had Celtic lost we would have got it in the neck but seeing as we’ve won Davie wants to go at the teams we’re beating.

“The Hoops boss was havering. Like all coaches, Neil talked up the opposition pre-match. Over in Porto, Steven Gerrard was doing the same thing.

“If managers bum up the opposition, it makes them look better when they get a result. Bottom line is neither Lazio nor Porto have real quality at the moment.

“Had it been a Champions League game, it’s more likely Juventus would have provided the Italian opposition.

“Instead, a Lazio outfit that finished eighth in Serie A — 31 points behind Juve — got an automatic Europa League group place because they won the cup.”

Celtic are trying to find their feet on a European setting again after Brendan Rodgers refused to impose a different philosophy against teams who were technically better than Celtic. The former Celtic manager would try to go toe to toe with his opponents and it resulted in some demoralising defeats.

Nobody said Lazio are world beaters but they are a very good side and Celtic beating them is worthy of praise.

Provan did praise the Celtic support and conceded the game did have a Champions League vibe because of the atmosphere. There’s no sort of stock take or reality check by guys like Provan who think the best thing to do is run down his old club whenever he gets a chance.