Celtic captain Scott Brown has denied comments made by boss Ronny Delia that his men were “scared” by claiming his side were simply not good enough in their Champions League play-off defeat to Malmo.

The Hoops were dumped out of the Champions League before the group stage for the second year running after they fell to defeat on Tuesday night.

Celtic went into the game with a one-goal advantage but that was soon taken away from them when Markus Rosenberg opened the scoring on 22 minutes.

Defender Dedryck Boyata then scored an own goal and Malmo hung on to secure their place in the group stages.

After the match Delia claimed his side were scared to play but Brown, Craig Gordon and Kris Commons have all rejected these claims.

Both Gordon and Commons claimed they just didn’t turn up on the night and Brown has now chipped in and admitted his side need to improve in the future.

He told the Daily Record: “I wouldn’t say we were scared. We’ve played in bigger stadiums with more atmosphere than that. We just didn’t turn up on the day.

“It was front to back all the way through. We didn’t start well and Malmo got us on the back foot. We had to defend most of the game and didn’t create many clear- cut chances. That was unexpected.

“When you go into a game with a 3-2 lead you have to be confident. As soon as they scored their goal from a set-play we should know better than to let it happen again.

“But then they score another one from the same situation. We weren’t learning lessons.”