Ronny Deila demands more from Celtic after they were held to a draw by Motherwell

Ronny Deila admitted that Celtic were forced to play catch-up after a subdued start to their 1-1 draw with Motherwell in the Scottish Premiership.

The reigning champions fell behind in the 19th minute through a fine volley from John Sutton, but Kris Commons levelled with a 68th minute penalty after a foul on fellow substitute Scott Brown.

Celtic slipped five points behind leaders Dundee United, with a game in hand, and Deila demanded more from his players in the weeks ahead.

"Of course I'm not happy with the result. We deserved to win, but we made it so difficult for ourselves with a poor first half,” said the Norwegian, who made six changes to his side following their 2-2 Europa League draw in Salzburg

“We had bad tempo, no passes forward and didn't break them down once in the first half. That's not good enough.

“In the second half, we had two good subs coming on, they brought energy into the game and we played quite well.

"But you cannot rely on one or two players. We need to get the whole squad up at the right level.

"We need to build leaders out on the pitch, for when Scott and Kris aren't there.

"Maybe six changes was too much. But I don't want to rotate that much, it was just needed.”

On-loan midfielder Aleksandar Tonev, who is facing a race charge, was hauled off at half-time.

The Bulgarian was hit with an Scottish FA notice of complaint on Friday night after Aberdeen defender Shay Logan claimed he racially abused him during Celtic’s 2-1 home win last weekend.

Asked about Tonev’s charge, Deila replied “Yeah, it's not ideal. It takes energy from you, but I don't think this will cause any problems. I believe in him, I believe it's something he hasn't done.

"But he can't do anything about it now. He has to think about what he does in training every day.

"He's been out for a long, long time. He has been injured.

"So it's about getting him up to his best. That will take some time."

Motherwell manager Stuart McCall was pleased with a point, particularly after Well's first goal at Celtic Park in four years.

"It was a great goal, a good breakaway,” he said. "We came with a plan to try to frustrate Celtic because you can't be too open.

"We have been too open here and got beaten two or three nil."

Reflecting on the penalty incident, McCall said: "When Brown goes in there is a little lean by Josh Law, but I'm not so sure it was enough to take him down so that could have been 50-50.”