Adam Matthews: 'Celtic's Scottish Cup exit makes unbeaten league record more important'

Celtic defender Adam Matthews has claimed that Saturday's Scottish Cup defeat to Aberdeen has made it even more important for his side to hold on to their unbeaten record in the league.

The Scottish Premiership is the only competition that the Hoops have left to play for this season. Neil Lennon's side exited the Champions League in the group phase last year, shortly after being knocked out of the League Cup by Morton.

"We are obviously disappointed," Matthews told reporters. "We weren't happy with the way we played, we know we can play much better. But it's important we put that behind us and concentrate on keeping our run going in the league. I think it's got more influence on our season now.

"Obviously we are out of both cups, which is very disappointing for us, especially the Scottish Cup as we won it last year and wanted to retain it. So I think it's very important to keep our run in the league going.

"We know it's going to get tougher every week because everyone is going to want to defeat us and break our run. So we have to be on top of our game. We can't have a performance like we did against Aberdeen."

Celtic have won 21 and drawn three of their 24 league matches so far this term. Their next game is at home to St Johnstone on Sunday.