Dundee boss Paul Hartley praised his much-changed team for earning a deserved point against Celtic last night that could well have been three.
With one eye on Saturday’s Scottish Cup quarter-final at Ibrox, Hartley made four changes from the weekend, keeping Greg Stewart, Kane Hemmings and Gary Harkins all on the bench.
The trio came on in the second half but by that point the Dark Blues were in control of the match and had it not been for a wayward point-blank header near the end from Kostadin Gadzhalov they would have left Glasgow with a win.
For Hartley, though, it was a night for pride, not regrets.
He said: “We changed our personnel and our formation. It was a great performance. The game plan worked.
“We only had one day to work on a back three but we had a high press against Celtic and second half I thought we were the better team.
“We could have nicked it. Kosta had a great chance and Gary had a good chance as well.
“In the last 20 minutes we looked the more threatening team.
“Overall I’m really pleased with the lads.
“The two young lads Cammy Kerr and Craig Wighton who came in were excellent. It was a great overall performance.
“If you look at the last period of the game we had the best opportunities.”
He added: “With this group anything is possible.
“They just keep going. What a fantastic bunch to work with.
“You’ve got to give us credit for how we played. We didn’t park the bus. We pressed them and worked them, they didn’t have many chances, so the credit has to go to us.
“People will look at it and say it was a poor Celtic performance but we have to take all the credit tonight.
“We were on the front foot at the end and could have won it. But we’ll take a point.”
On Gadzhalov’s late chance, Hartley said: “It’s one of those things.
“He’s made a good connection and you’re just waiting for it to go in the back of the net. But it was a miss. That happens and we’re not going to blame anyone.”
Celtic captain Scott Brown didn’t try to sugar-coat his team’s poor performance.
“It wasn’t good enough,” he said.
“We are devastated. We didn’t play well and we let everyone down.
“We knew Aberdeen would win and we had to go and do the same. We haven’t done ourselves justice.
“We know we are good enough and we need to stick together.
“We deserved the criticism from the fans. Totally.
“That’s been a few games at home where we have let ourselves down. It’s been long-ball football and we haven’t created a lot of chances.
“It’s not good enough overall. I’m frustrated, the fans are frustrated and I think everyone at the club is frustrated we aren’t doing as well as we can.”