Nick Montgomery bemoaned the loss of avoidable goals in Hibs’ 4-1 defeat by Celtic in Glasgow.

The hosts took an early lead when Luis Palma’s fifth-minute corner was forced over the line by a combination of Oh Hyeon-gyu and Cameron Carter-Vickers and Palma was involved in the second when he gave Lewis Miller the slip before crossing for the unmarked Matt O’Riley to head home Celtic’s second.

Palma added a third from the penalty spot before Oh grabbed his second and Celtic’s fourth when he nudged Will Fish off the ball before slotting past David Marshall. Substitute Christian Doidge grabbed a consolation and Élie Youan had two good chances saved by Joe Hart, but Hibs never looked likely to spark a comeback.

Speaking afterwards, the Easter Road head coach said: “We don’t like losing, but the most disappointing thing was the manner of the goals we conceded.

“We came here with a game plan and I thought we looked okay at the start, then it was a really poor goal to concede, and you can’t do that. The second goal, [O’Riley] is unmarked in the box. They never really carved us open really, it was our own doing and we spoke about that before the game.

“We were disappointed to go 2-0 down but in saying that we had two really big chances, two one-on-ones in the first half but two massive saves from Joe Hart. If one or both of those go in it gives us a chance to get back into the game.”

Match referee John Beaton initially didn’t award the penalty when Alistair Johnston went down under the challenge of Lewis Stevenson but was advised to have a second look by VAR Gavin Duncan and after consulting the monitor, pointed to the spot with Marshall unable to repeat his penalty save from Bojan Miovski on Sunday.

Montgomery felt the penalty was soft, adding: “I thought we started the second half brightly but it’s a really soft penalty for me. I’ve lost count of how many incidents like that we’ve had this season that never go to the screen, it just gets waved on.

“I don’t think anybody really expected the referee to give a penalty but I’m only going on what I’ve seen, and Lewis went down the side of him, not through the back of him.

“It’s a tough one for the referee; if you slow everything down then I’m sure there would be a lot more fouls and penalties given every single game.

“So that really killed any momentum we had but what I’m proud of is that we kept going and we got a goal back. The fourth goal is disappointing to lose, but the boys kept going and we managed to chuck a few players on towards the end and freshen some up for the weekend.

“You come to Celtic Park, you lose a game of football. I’m disappointed in the manner of goals we conceded but in patches we played some good stuff and caused them problems.”

Hibs are on the road again on Saturday, taking on Livingston at the Tony Macaroni Arena and despite a busy schedule this month including an Edinburgh derby just before the turn of the year, Montgomery insists full focus is on getting three points in West Lothian.

“You want to improve and learn from every game and from every goal you concede. The first two goals are totally avoidable, and then there’s the penalty, but I think we limited Celtic to very few big chances.

"I thought we had the best two chances in the first half and on another day, maybe Joe Hart doesn’t make two point-blank saves. But he did, and it gave us an uphill task but the boys learn all the time, they learn every day.

"We continued to play and it was good to see some of the young boys on at the end, it’s more experience for them, but now we have to dust ourselves down, take the positives because we’ve got a big schedule coming up.

“I just want us to be picking up points, competing in every game, and continuing to play good football. We’ve got some tough games coming up away from home and then we’ve got a massive game against Hearts which is a sell-out and no doubt everyone will be looking forward to that.

“But we’ve got a game this weekend, that’s our main focus right now that we’ve got to prepare for."