"We Shot Ourselves In The Foot" - Lennon

Celtic manager Neil Lennon did not pull any punches after the club's 4-0 loss to FC Utrecht which eliminated them from the Europa League last Thursday telling reporters that he "never had any illusions about where we are. I was always wary of this tie but didn't think we would play as badly as that."

After a 2-0 win at Parkhead in the first leg, fans had every right to expect the Bhoys to be in the draw for the Group Stage held on Friday in Monaco, but poor defending and needless fouls allowed the Dutch to pile in the goals.

Within 20 minutes of the kick-off, Utrecht were already tied on aggregate, Ricky van Wolfswinkel having converted penalties from two needless fouls from Jos Hooiveld and goalkeeper Lukasz Zaluska.

He got his hat-trick in the opening stages of the second half with a nice curling shot from just outside the box and Barry Maguire fired a scorcher in to make it 4-0 in the 63rd minute.

This result means that Celtic have won just one away game in Europe out of the last 28 attempts - a record that stretches back to the Champions League qualifier against MTK Hungary in 2003.

Lennon was particularly upset that the team let Utrecht get the go-ahead goal so quickly after the restart: "At half-time we said we were still well in the tie. We just need to score a goal and they have to get two. But I was just about to get back in my seat when we were 3-0 down.

"It's just a poor performance overall and I take full responsibility for that myself. The first penalty was soft and for the second we shot ourselves in the foot."

Things went better in the weekend's match against Motherwell, a late penalty converted by Daryl Murphy - his first goal in the hoops - leaving the Bhoys sat atop the Scottish Premier League table, tied on points with Rangers but with a superior goal difference.

Striker Marc-Antoine Fortune has been signed by English Premier League outfit West Bromwich Albion on a two-year deal for an undisclosed sum.

The 29-year-old Guianan returns to the club where his spend five months on loan at the end of the 2008/9 season.

Since being signed to Celtic from Nancy last summer in a £3.8m deal, he has only scored 12 goals. "The great thing about this signing is that it won't take him long to settle in because he knows the club inside out. He also knows what this league is all about.

"Marco got on really well with the other players during his loan here and they're all delighted to see him back.

"He is a powerful striker who can hold the ball up and bring others into play and having also signed Peter Odemwingie last week, we now have plenty of competition up front."

On Thursday, BBC Scotland revealed that Hibs' board is to meet to discuss the proposed move on striker Anthony Stokes by Celtic.

According to the report, Stokes tops a shortlist of players being targeted by the Hoops, with Hapoel Tel Aviv's Itay Shechter also high on the list.

Asked about the report, manager Neil Lennon confirmed that "he's an option for us.

"He's a player we like but we have nothing more to say on that at the minute."