Dundee are beyond the point where a good performance is the summit of their ambitions at Celtic Park, according to defender James McPake.
A good performance was exactly what they produced on Saturday a very good one but it was to no avail.
And the fact that the Dark Blues’ players took little consolation from the sort of Parkhead parity that few teams enjoy, and that McPake himself has never before experienced, speaks to the standards that Paul Hartley’s men have set, he believes.
“We are disappointed (for the second time this season) we have not beaten them, let alone draw,” the former Hibs and Livingston man pointed out.
“We did more than enough and had enough chances, but coming here you have to put them away.
“You need a bit of luck but we didn’t get it.
“We are disappointed and that shows how far we have come under the manager.
“I have never come here and had as many chances as that. In the first half, that’s as many chances as I’ve ever had in all the times I’ve played here.
“You are normally lucky if you get one or two.
“If we put them away we could have had a right few.
“But we pick ourselves up for next weekend now.”
Although the Dundee display was new territory for McPake, it didn’t come as a surprise.
“We had been gearing towards it all week in training.
“The manager said he wanted to have a go.
“Sometimes you can sit in and nick a point, or get a goal in the last minute, but we wanted to play the way we always do.
“The manager has been positive from the first day I met him.
“Coming here he didn’t want it to be different from any other game.
“He was happy with the way we played but disappointed we came away with nothing.
“Unfortunately it wasn’t good enough but we go away with our heads held high.”
Dundee put their marker down early in this one, and from the off you could tell they were neither intimidated by their surroundings, nor their opposition.
Indeed, it was the visitors who were first to threaten.
Within a few minutes David Clarkson had the Celtic defence scrambling to keep a lob over Craig Gordon out of their goal, and Paul McGowan was the next man to have a go when he was picked out at the back post and should have done better with a shot from an admittedly tight angle.
There had been a couple of dangerous-looking Celtic corners but, other than that, Dundee were very comfortable in the first half.
Backing that up, it wasn’t until near the half-hour mark that prolific marksman John Guidetti got his first sight on goal. And when he did, Scott Bain rushed off his line to close the Swede down and block his shot.
There was a spell when Dundee had three good chances in as many minutes.
Thomas Konrad headed over from an off the training ground corner, Gary Irvine hooked the ball over the bar from another, and a Greg Stewart shot from the edge of the box took a big deflection and looped just past the post, with Gordon helpless.
All that good first half work was undone in the last minute of the 45 though, when Kevin Thomson gave away a free-kick on the bye-line. Kris Commons swung the set-piece into the near post and Anthony Stokes headed home.
Ten minutes after the re-start you’d have thought this game was over as a contest when Celtic burst down the right and Guidetti gave Bain no chance from about 12 yards out.
The Dark Blues though hit back quickly to re-establish the one goal deficit.
They had already had a McPake header disallowed for offside and a hand-ball penalty claim waved away, but there could be no argument when top scorer Clarkson found the left-hand side of Gordon’s net.
To make it a club record seven games in a row that Clarkson has scored in since his debut is a fine personal achievement.
McPake revealed that he was shocked Dundee were able to pick him up after the transfer window had closed.
“The record is brilliant but the work he does is incredible,” the 30-year-old said.
“I was surprised that he had been round a few teams and no-one took a chance on him.
“I was delighted we signed him because he has scored goals everywhere he’s been. I’d played against him in Scotland and down south.
“He’s big, strong and a handful for any defender in this league.”
It would have been a disappointment to Dundee that there was no serious threat of an equaliser after Clarkson’s strike. They tried a few substitutions and kept committing men forward, but Celtic showed more control the longer the game went on.
Full-back Adam Matthews confirmed that the league leaders knew they had been in a game.
“It was a hard-fought victory,” he pointed out. “Three points is good but we didn’t play as well as we can. They gave us a tough match but the main thing is we got the win.”
It was a rare sight for Celtic fans to see Matthews on the right side of defence and James Forrest ahead of him.
The double act has proved to be a successful one in the past, and could well be again.
The Welshman said: “It’s great to have James back. He showed today exactly what he can do for the team. I think he’s only going to get better with more games. Hopefully he can keep playing like that and keep proving himself to people.
“He brings pace, has a trick and can cross the ball. He’s the only out and out winger we’ve got. James likes getting at the full-back and getting crosses in.
“We’ve both been injured so we’ve spent a lot of time together recently. It’s nice to have him back and I enjoy playing with him.
“Hopefully we can get a good partnership going.”
Scott Brown was sorely missed in the Celtic side, but Hoops boss Ronny Deila didn’t want to use that as an excuse.
“You can’t always talk about Broony,” he insisted. “He was out today and we need to be a good team without him.
“We win and that’s the positive thing but the performance has to be much better on Thursday (in the Europa League).”
Meanwhile, like McPake, manager Hartley was left to reflect on what might have been.
He observed: “We’ve been stressing all week you come here to Celtic you’ve got to be brave, you’ve got to take the game to them, keep passing the ball, and we did that.
“I’m really pleased with the way they performed. I’m really disappointed in the result and so are the players, but in terms of the performance I thought we were excellent.
“We don’t want any hard luck stories. Although we gave Celtic a game today we felt if we took some of our chances we could have won the game.
“We’ve played Celtic twice this season and there’s not been a lot in it.”