Brendan Rodgers hailed Leigh Griffiths for shrugging off a speeding conviction to drive Celtic to victory over Rosenborg.
The Parkhead boss has warned the Scotland striker he has to work harder at his game on and off the pitch to become a first pick for club and country.
And Griffiths responded by scoring a vital Europa League winner against the Norwegian champions with just three minutes to play.
Found guilty of speeding at Dundee Justice of the Peace Court hours before kick-off, the 28-year-old was fined £200 and given three penalty points.
A man in a hurry on the pitch as well as off, the striker shrugged off his brush with the law to claim the winner eleven minutes after taking to the pitch.
'He seems to have this in-built brain to deal with all this stuff,' said Rodgers of the matchwinner.
'Probably a lot of players, what happens in their world can be a real distraction. He learns to deal with it.
'He's a great boy, we all love him and I know I can rely on him, when I put him on the pitch, that he always has the possibility to score. It was a great night for him and the team and our first three points.'
Rodgers used his pre-match press conference to reiterate his warning that Griffiths has to do more to adapt to the modern role of the striker.
Speaking as the former HIbs man justified the decision to grant him a four year contract last week Rodgers struck a conciliatory tone adding: 'It is not just Leigh. It is every player. Every player needs to improve.
'Every player has a responsibility to get better, especially in the top end of the field. What we know about Leigh is that he can score goals. You fancy him in a game like that.
'If there is an opportunity and a chance he can take it. It was the only chance that he had in the game.
'We got the ball into the box, he anticipated it and it was a great finish, to hit it into the ground and get the winning goal.
'Whether he plays or on the bench he wants to play for Celtic. He's got that hunger and he realises at 28 when you've got that competition then he has to fight. He does that.
'He is 28 and has signed a four year deal. We still think there is a lot of improvement that he can make. Not just him, but the rest of the players.'
For 87 minutes Celtic struggled to break down a Rosenborg side boasting nine wins in their last eleven games.
Dogged and organised the goal came as a relief to a home crowd growing increasingly frustrated.
'I was very happy with the goal. It was a great win in relation to our spirit in the game and our persitance to keep going to the very end.
'We were playing against a Rosenborg team who have nine games and drawn two since we last faced them so they came with a real high level of confidence and they surprised us in the first 15 to 20 minutes by playing a diamond.
'But once we found a balance to defend against that we started to come into the game and created some chances particularly down the left side.
'But without being at the top of our game we kept going and that's what I asked them to do after the game last week. We have to find a way of winning when we are not playing as well as we would like and the players did that tonight.'
Rosenborg coach Rini Coolen felt his team deserved a point for an organised display.
RB Salzburg - Celtic's next opponents on October 4 - beat RB Leipzig in the other game and Coolen admitted: 'We are disappointed to lose it in the end. I think we deserved a little more. I can be happy and proud of the boys tonight. We had a different game plan than we usually do and it worked pretty well.
'If I look back, I think we could have done better defensively at the goal. It's a second ball (to Griffiths) and we need to be there. These things make a difference at this level.'
